I haven’t got a clue

Foreign Languages are not a strength of mine. My schoolgirl French is pitiful and my brief efforts at German have dwindled to a single, decidedly odd, phrase: ‘Ich habe keine ahnung.’ If your German is even worse than mine, this means ‘I haven’t got a clue’ – perhaps not the most useful phrase if I ever wanted to ask directions or buy a drink!

Or perhaps it isn’t so worthless a phrase……

I recently listened to, and recommend, Rory Stewart’s Radio 4 series ‘The Long History of Ignorance’. Stewart, a writer, broadcaster and former politician, challenges the simplistic assumption that knowledge is good and ignorance is bad. Exploring the issue in terms of science, politics, personal relationships and belief systems, he argues that simply acquiring more knowledge will not solve every problem. Ignorance can even be positive. In trials for a new drug participants will deliberately be left ignorant of whether they have been given it. No parent would want their every thought to be instantly known by their child – if the screaming toddler, or moody teenager knew that their parent, however fleetingly, was wishing they’d never been born, that would be unspeakably damaging!

Stewart also explores the impossibility of knowing ‘everything’ about any complex situation, let alone being able to predict all possible outcomes of our actions. (Having found himself Minister for Africa, before setting foot on the continent, he was keenly aware of how ill-prepared politicians often are for making key decisions.) He also drew in religious thinkers, such as Rowan Williams, who spoke powerfully of how an awareness of the limits of our own understanding should be at the heart of any religious faith. What’s the point in worshipping a God our human minds could fully ‘comprehend’. It is our ‘certainties’ that cause hatred and sectarianism.

Stewart argues that what matters is to recognise just how ignorant we are – knowing we don’t know everything is more important than anything else. A greater awareness of our ignorance could open us up to make better decisions and become better, wiser, people.

So I’m beginning to think that perhaps my one German phrase isn’t so useless. ‘I haven’t got a clue’ about so much in our world, but if realising that makes me more humble, less opinionated and a more attentive listener, then it might be a motto to live by.

Revd Kate McFarlane