Curiosity over Dogma
Part 4 of The Long Game
We’ve talked about cooperation, empathy, and fairness. But there is a silent killer of movements that we have to address: The need to be right.
In a regime of Alphas, “certainty” is the ultimate currency. The Strongman never admits a mistake. He never changes his mind. He treats curiosity like a confession of weakness.
But for the Humanist, curiosity is a superpower.
In our reading from Isaiah, the speaker talks about having an “opened ear.” Not a loud mouth, not a clenched fist, but an opened ear. This is the fourth tool of the Long Game: the radical, subversive act of staying curious in a world that demands you pick a side and stay there.
The “Dogma Trap”
We’ve all seen it in the Progressive movement. We get so locked into our own “dogma,” our specific way of seeing the world, our specific vocabulary, our specific list of enemies, that we stop listening. We become a mirror image of the Alpha we’re fighting: rigid, reactive, and ultimately, fragile.
Certainty is a cage. When you “know” everything, you can’t learn anything. And if you can’t learn, you can’t adapt.
The Alpha regime wants us to be dogmatic. They want us to be so certain of our own righteousness that we can’t see the humanity in our neighbors or the wisdom in our allies. They want us to be predictable.
Curiosity as Resistance
Curiosity is the “face like flint” in action. It is the steady, unshakeable resolve to keep seeking the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable.
Curiosity asks “Why?”: Instead of judging an ally’s “wrong” opinion, it asks, “What experience led you to that conclusion?”
Curiosity admits “I don’t know”: This is the ultimate “self-emptying” (Philippians 2). It’s setting aside the ego’s need to be the smartest person in the room so you can actually hear the “well-trained tongue” in someone else.
Curiosity builds the “Common Floor”: It’s the tool that allows us to find the compromise we discussed in Post 1. It helps us see the 80% we agree on instead of the 20% that divides us.
The “Opened Ear” in a Shouting Match
The Alpha wins by turning every conversation into a battlefield. But you can’t have a battlefield if one side refuses to pick up the sword.
When you respond to hostility with Curiosity, you change the chemistry of the room. You aren’t “submitting”; you are investigating. You are looking for the vulnerability behind the Alpha’s mask. You are looking for the common humanity that the regime is trying to hide.
The Power of the “Questioning Mind”
A community of curious people is impossible to lead by a Strongman. Why? Because curious people ask too many questions. They don’t fall for simple slogans. They don’t accept “othering” at face value.
Curiosity is the intellectual infrastructure of a free society.
Your Challenge: The “Reverse Interview”
This week, find someone you deeply disagree with, either an “Alpha-wannabe” in your life or an ally who is pushing your buttons.
Ask them three genuine, open-ended questions about their perspective.
Don’t ask “trap” questions. Don’t wait for your turn to “rebut.” Just listen. Empty yourself of the need to “win” the debate and instead, try to understand the logic of their world. See if that “opened ear” doesn’t create a crack in the wall between you.
Afterwards, spend some time reflecting:
Is your “ear opened” or is it a “clenched fist”? Can we be curious enough to win the Long Game together?