The Random Rant
[Note: Trying to put this in comic/flow-chart form. For now, we have this.]
The problem with the word random is that the explanation for random is randomness — an explanation unto itself. There is no further knowledge required, deeper questioning is discouraged, and all underlying meaning is extinguished. As an explanation or description, random is the beginning and the end. Random refuses to understand causes and it refuses to believe any further explanation exists. It’s just random.
We absolve ourselves of any obligation to seek more information when we declare randomness. If something is surprising or confusing, we can quickly reach for the random explanation instead of attempting comprehension. It stifles curiosity and promotes ignorance. It constructs a towering wall around vibrant cities of understanding and leaves us outside, unable to perceive what might be inside.
Every time we misuse random as a terminal explanation, there is something we fail to understand. Every time we label a person random, we deny that individual a chunk of identity and meaningful uniqueness. Every time we label a friend’s utterances random, we eradicate his personal curiosities, thought processes, and personal experiences from which this friend drew such strange ideas. It’s dehumanizing.
Letting random stand as a final explanation stops us from understanding anything else about the thing, person or thought we’re labeling. There are no random people and there are no random thoughts. It is easy to dispense the random label in public to strangers and overheard conversation. It is often not important to understand these people and things in the context of a fast food restaurant or shopping mall.
But when we come home, or meet up with friends, it is important. Certainly there are things about our loved ones and selves we don’t want to know, but hardly to the extent random dictates. If we are meaningful beings with meaningful behavior, then random is not appropriate to explain us. To understand anything or anyone, we can’t say it’s random.
And it’s annoying. That too.
