We Watch the Boat Sink
"Our fractured society watches the boat sink, continuing to fight rather than uniting efforts to plug the hole."
We all have opinions. Deeply rooted ideas. Convictions we defend as if our lives depended on them.
In fact, by the end of this article, you'll have an opinion. About this text. About me. About what I'm trying to convey. And that's normal.
An opinion is a quick reaction to what we perceive. It's a reflection of our experiences, beliefs, sometimes our wounds, but rarely the product of true, in-depth reflection.
We form them in mere seconds. With little information. Because the brain likes to organize things. To classify. To judge. To feel secure. But sometimes... it moves a bit too fast.
Look around you. To the right, to the left, up, down: no matter the topic, we quickly find ourselves in opposing camps. Extreme right against extreme left. Pro-science against anti-science. Pro-system against conspiracy theorists. No more nuance. No middle ground. And above all, no more possible debate without it igniting. We dig in. We judge. We insult. We divide.
What if we were all wrong?
Not in an accusatory sense. But in a more humble, broader sense: what if the truth eluded us all a bit? What if what we defended so passionately was just one perception among others? Because, let's be honest... most of what we think we know... we don't. We assume. We've heard. We've interpreted. We've filtered through our values, our fears, our experiences. But it's not the truth. It's simply our truth. And those are two very different things.
This Isn’t About Elon Musk
Elon Musk raises his arm in a crowd, in a gesture some interpret as a Nazi salute. The image goes viral. The media seizes it. Social networks ignite. And for many, it's settled: he's a Nazi. No debate. No nuance. No other option.
On the other side, the crowd rises too, convinced that Musk did nothing wrong. To them, it was a simple heartfelt gesture, a way to greet and thank his audience. They accuse the media of deliberately capturing the image to harm his reputation. They even share photos of politicians with raised arms to illustrate their point.
Musk, for his part, suggests on his own social platform that it wasn't a Nazi salute. He ridicules the accusations, speaks of "media propaganda," and calls the "everyone is Hitler" reflex a worn-out tactic.
But here's the thing: between those against him, those for him, and his own reactions... we no longer know whom to trust. We doubt. We become wary. And if we're honest, it's because deep down... we know we've been manipulated, both left and right, since the dawn of time. Moreover, the information sources around us take sides, for or against, which fiercely fuels division.
So we choose a side. We believe one or the other, based on what we want to believe. Our values. Our intuition.
But the truth... is that we don't know. We think we know. We interpret.
And that's where the real problem begins: we take this uncertainty, this perception, and turn it into certainty. A banner. A war flag.
From there, we start to hate each other. Not just Musk. Those who love him. Those who hate him. Those who drive a Tesla. Those who no longer want to talk to them. Those who defend freedom. Those who defend ethics.
This text isn't here to talk about Elon Musk or take a stance. It's here to show the absurdity of our collective behaviors, topic after topic, battle after battle. The same scenario repeats continuously.
We All View the Same Event Through Different Lenses
Let's take another example, even more sensitive: the COVID-19 pandemic.
For some, the measures were necessary, justified, and taken urgently to save lives.
For others, they were excessive, inconsistent, and caused deep collateral damage.
We often talked about science, but we forgot to mention that science isn't a fixed truth: it's a constantly evolving process.
Today, with hindsight, we can see that many certainties of the time didn't hold up. What we asserted confidently were, in reality, just hypotheses. We thought we knew, but we didn't.
Not everyone who didn't receive the vaccine died of COVID. And not everyone who received it died from the vaccine.
But despite this uncertainty, we chose sides at the moment, in the heat of panic. We excluded. We stigmatized. We labeled some as conspiracy theorists, others as sheep. We divided to the point where families were broken, friendships destroyed, bonds severed... not because of the virus, but because of our respective certainties.
Everyone was trying to navigate uncertainty. To protect what they believed was important. To survive, in their own way. Not out of malice, but because thinking is frowned upon. Doubting is a weakness.
We live in a society where you must quickly choose your side because every topic turns into a social war.
The Real Threat Is Our Inability to Communicate
We've become incapable of listening. Incapable of simply saying to ourselves:
"What if I don't know? What if I still have things to understand before forming an opinion?"
But what's the real danger in daring to question ourselves? The judgment of others? Social criticism? And yet... we're all ignorant, each in our own way. Very few can truly claim to know anything. And there's no shame in that.
What's sad is refusing doubt. Locking ourselves into certainties that divide us. Because while we fight in the dust of comments, in rage, vandalism, hatred, the real game continues above our heads.
We're hitting each other while we're all drilling holes in the same boat.
And this world doesn't need more judgments. It needs a bit more heart. More listening. More love.
Otherwise, the boat will eventually sink. And we'll all drown.
