Zeno’s Paradox and the Presidential Election: Thoughts on Absence of Certainty

In today’s edition of the Conversation, senior political editor Naomi Schalit describes tomorrow’s election as a “ politically sadistic version of Zeno’s paradox.”

To be clear, I never really understood Zeno’s paradox and the accompanying philosophical and mathematic quandaries. But, I do get that it has to do with infinity and never reaching the finish line.

I have long suspected that the finish line of tomorrow’s election will not be known in the near term, perhaps never. The actual vote tallies will take a long time; so will the challenges; so will the lawsuits.

And if the last election is any barometer, the claims of a “tainted election” will carry forward ad infinitum. This go-round, I think whichever is the losing party will claim fraud and deceit and illegality and corruption. Whether that party is right is another issue altogether.

The problem is that for humans, uncertainty is psychologically worse for our mental health than a bad certainty. Let me explain.

In medicine, patients without a diagnosis or awaiting a diagnosis struggle mightily. Uncertainty wrecks havoc on our minds. Think about awaiting the results of an MRI or a biopsy (and awaiting the test before that). We can’t find anything to hold on to, except not knowing. In an interpersonal relationship, the beached whale status between two people is the worst; one doesn’t know the outcome; one sits in suspense and that is agony.

The idea that time will tell and use patience may be right but it still feels bad in that uncertain space. And in the context of the upcoming election, that time could extend for days or weeks or months or years even.

This is true: bad outcomes are not pleasant or easy. Consider a bad medical diagnosis or an impending relationship end. But, as bad as these things are, they enable us to plan and to consider next steps. When “infinity” of outcome rears its head, we can’t plan; we can’t move forward; we get stuck in the mud or sand; we are immobilized.

I think part of our current anxious state, in whatever political space we are in, is the presence (omnipresence) of uncertainty. Yup. Zeno time.

Now, I’ve been wondering if we can somehow accept uncertainty as a certainty and find ways to manage. That’s not an easy ask. With no signs and no guardrails and no map, it is difficult to find one’s way.

Now I’m not sure what Zeno would have to say about all this. But here’s one idea: grab onto uncertainty as a concrete reality and recognize there is no endpoint. Nope: we are moving forward just as time moves forward, absent a clear endpoint. Hold that thought. Pretty frightening. Harder still to accept that reality with grace as opposed to a certain, though bad, election result.

Might be time for all of us to read up on Zeno and his paradoxes.