When We Are Not Sure, We Are Alive

The titles of chapters O, P and Q are contradiction, doubt and thinking respectively. I found these chapters interesting as they show the uncertainty of the human mind. We don't and will not understand everything and our thoughts aren't perfect or logical. This topic is relevant in the book as it deals with how we express and perceive ideas, which is ultimately our reality and our art. 
Humans feel superior to other animals, and well I guess we are, but we still have the same type of thinking. In studies to see children's emotional coefficients (EQs), scientists have seen that a lot simply cannot control themselves from eating candy even if they know they'll get a better reward if they wait. Some kids did wait and were rewarded, but short-term instincts are part of all humans at some point. Even when we know that doing something will not be good eventually, we often act upon impulses. Our brains are not completely logical so we must try to make the best out of them. 

Shields writes several antithetical statements like "This sentence is a lie" (pg. 135), "Something can be true and untrue at the same time" (pg. 135) and "There's nothing and everything going on" (pg. 137). The first shows that things can be contradictory. Two opposing ideas can coexist because there isn't one reality where things are either true or false, as the second antithetical statement says. The third points out that perception changes reality. Previous chapter included all these ideas but Shields is now showing not only that there are many realities, as I wrote in previous blog posts, but that the term reality is paradoxical. I guess that in our search for truth we will find many because our brains are genetically susceptible to see everything differently. I acknowledge that I have a very Darwinist way of thinking but humans simply are quarreling lost animals and don't have the capacity to be objective (there is "evidence" that genes influence politics). Shields writes, "The real story isn't the official story; the real story is my version (wrong, too, but I'm aware that it's wrong) of the official story" (pg. 139).  Since everyone sees things differently, there cannot be one reality. There are many realities, which is paradoxical with the definition of reality: "the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them," according to my computer's dictionary.

There simply will not be one truth.