On an otherwise normal day, a buoy was placed in the Mediterranean Sea, several hundred feet
off the coast. It was placed there as a marker to direct a new travel channel, open for local
ships and fisherman, that had previously been a no-take zone restricted from most human
activity. The buoy bobbed lifelessly up and down - side
to side - secured in place by a chain anchored to the sea’s floor.
As time passed, the buoy was noticed more and more by schools of fish that lived in
the surrounding water. Simultaneously, fisherman began fishing around and near the buoy, which
had begun to train the fish to correlate the seemingly new occurrence of fish being pulled
up and out of the surface with the newly introduced thing that was, in this case, the buoy.
As time continued to pass and more fish were getting pulled up and out of the water, some
fish became curious as to what exactly the constant, ominous, and glowing thing was that
seemed to be the source. Some braver fish would go up to the buoy in hopes for answers,
but it would seem to just loom over them silently like an all-powerful deity of the sea.
Eventually, one fish in particular came to the conclusion that the buoy must be watching
and rewarding them when they were doing something right, taking them to a paradise filled with
infinite more delicious food. It shared this explanation with its school, and since there
were no other explanations and this one sounded pretty nice, it was obvious to the school
that the fish must be right. Simultaneously, another fish of a different
school, also trying to make sense of the buoy, came to a similar conclusion. However, it
deemed that the buoy was not rewarding them when they were doing something right, but
rather, punishing them when they were doing something wrong, and taking them to a horrible
place above the surface. This fish shared this explanation with its school and out of
the fear of it being true, the school agreed that it must be.
At some point, fueled by fear of either possibilities, both interpretations had begun to spread out
across and into other local schools of fish, each adopting one of the two views or some
derivative combination of both. The occasional fish that seemed to be thrown
back into the water from the surface could only describe the experience as a powerful
white blinding light and surreal sense of something beyond, which only further fueled
all beliefs equally. Over time, otherwise friendly and interconnected
schools of fish became further and further isolated from one another, each separating
themselves by their schools of thinking. Those who believed that the buoy was rewarding them
determined that they must act in certain ways, which sometimes (oftentimes) contradicted
with the ways in which those who believed it was punishing them acted. And for those
who believed it was some mix of both or neither acted in contradictory assortments of all
of the above. Of course, since in actuality there was no
direct correlation, it was equally easy for all schools to find and interpret the same
moments as support for their preexisting conclusions, so long as they mostly ignored the moments
that weren’t. During some especially absurd periods, some
schools of fish even fought with each other, sometimes killing each other in the name of
their beliefs, feeling justified in their need to rescue or maintain the demands and
judgements of the buoy and preserve their potential reward.
Eventually, after not really understanding any existing view, a more skeptical and astute
fish noticed that the fish that were being taken never really seemed to be doing anything
different than the fish that weren’t and it determined that there was no proof of any
thing intentionally doing anything. And since there was no proof, the fish concluded that
the buoy wasn’t even real at all. When this fish explained this to its school, most of
the school denied and shunned it out of fear and its inability to explain what was happening.
But some (few) thought it made perfect sense and was obviously the truth.
These fish formed their own, new school, which of course did not sit well with the other,
older schools. Ultimately, each school was unmistakably sure
of their own interpretations and conclusions, and thus, all simultaneously sure that all
other schools were ignorant and inferior. After much continued division and conflict,
at one point, an elder fish came forward in an effort to restore peace and sanity to the
surrounding waters. This particularly wise fish concluded that the contradictory interpretations
meant only one thing: they didn’t and couldn’t know the nature or whims of the buoy.
Many of those already on the fence or outside of believing in the buoy found this to be
by far the most reasonable conclusion and thus, agreed that it was obviously true.
One would’ve expected this to help, but since their argument was that they were certain
they could not be certain of anything, other schools proceeded to argue against this certainty
of no certainty. “How can you can know that you can’t know?” Other shrewd fish of
opposing schools would argue, unaware that such a takedown claim also sort of destroyed
their own belief along with it. Ultimately, nothing really changed. The fish
continued on and on, insufferable and in constant conflict with each other.
Of course, the last, elder fish was correct. They could not know for sure. They could not
know that the buoy was a lifeless, hallow shaping of wood and iron placed there to tell
fisherman where they could go; a very real thing with a purpose that certainly had something
to do with the fish generally while simultaneously having nothing to do with any fish specifically;
but since they could not know this for sure, they could not know for sure that they could
not know this for sure either, and the other fish were sort of correct too.
When it came to matters of the buoy, the fish simply did not have the capacity to perceive,
know, or understand. There was, of course, like in all living things, an upper limit
to their awareness that prevented them from being able to comprehend the notions of fishermen
and fishhooks and fishing lines and buoys and nice seafood eateries with confused, hungry
humans; and the way in which all of these things worked together.
The only ultimate truth that the fish had access to was that they did not have access
to any ultimate truth, which trapped them all in a horrible, absurd paradox of their
own limited intelligence. The problem was not their imitated awareness,
though, but how the fish responded to it. What was most insufferable about almost all
of the fish wasn’t so much their individual interpretations, but their constant need to
be right and their certainty that, at any given time in any given view, they were. Obviously,
some interpretations were far more ridiculous and harmful than others, but even many of
the wiser fish often exhibited the same tendency to lack any humility and skepticism in their
own. It’s not that a single truth of the buoy
didn’t exist and it’s not that the fish shouldn’t have wanted and tried to find
it, but ultimately, the problem with the believing fish was the same for most of the none believing
fish. In every definitive belief or belief in no belief there existed an arrogance so
incongruent with the humility that should so obviously come with being a fish.
And only the few schools of fish, which did exist, who knew that they were likely almost
always wrong were ever right.