The Power of Unknowing

In traditional Western epistemology, knowledge is often seen as a measurable object that can always be discovered and proven. This Enlightenment thinking model is centered on scientific methods, peer review, experimental observation and repeatability. However, as the global ecological crisis gets worse, and as many communities continue to be restrained to the system of domination and control, some thinkers and activists have begun to question: What if the obsession with knowledge is part of the problem? What if true survival and transformation requires us to let go of the pursuit of certainty? Both Seed: The Untold Story and Adrienne Maree Brown's Emergent Strategy and Unlearning challenge the idea that knowing is always superior to unknowing. They argue that some of the most essential forms of wisdom—such as our relationships to the earth, to community, and to ourselves—cannot be fully measured or explained. Instead, these works invite us to learn to approach the "unknown" with humility and intuition. In this essay, I argue that both works embrace "unknowing" not as ignorance, but a radical method to resist the dominant, reconnect with ecological and community wisdom, and cultivate new ways to survive in global crises.

Seed: The Untold Story (2016) directed by Taggart Siegel and Jon Betz, is a documentary that records the efforts of farmers, Indigenous people and activists to protect the world’s seed diversity. In the past century, we have lost more than 90% of seed varieties due to industrial agriculture and the development of genetically modified single crops. Such losses are not only ecological, but also cultural and spiritual. This film focuses on how traditional seed-keeping practices carry the relationship between stories and rituals between humans and the earth, which cannot be replaced by scientific laboratories or corporate patents. One powerful line from a farmer notes, “When you lose seed, you lose the traditional way of eating.” Saving seeds has become a form of unknowing: we are obedient to the mysteries of nature, and we have to trust in the cycle that we cannot fully control. Vandana Shiva, an Indian environmental activist featured in the film, says, “Seed is not just the source of life. It is the very foundation of our being.” By resisting the monoculture of genetically modified crops and corporate seed patents, this documentary conveys a message: that ecological survival does not depend on domination of knowledge, but from restoring the connections with the unknowable rhythm of nature. This is also the intersection of the two works: Seed emphasizes the urgency for humans to reconnect with the mystery of nature, while Emergent Strategy provides a pathway through unlearning and adapting relationships to face that mystery with care rather than control.

Adrienne Maree Brown’s Emergent Strategy and Unlearning is a work that combines political theory, social commentary and personal reflection, and it is inspired by science fiction and natural systems. In this book, Brown explores how human beings can readjust their thinking and behavior patterns to build a more resilient future. The central idea that we must "unlearn" the dominant patterns of our thoughts—especially those that are linear, controlled and certain. For Brown, unlearning is not just about forgetting facts. It is about loosening the rigid structure that determines what is seen as legitimate knowledge. She presents a change from knowing as control to knowing as care. Like seeds in the soil, ideas do not grow by proof, but through intuition and emergence. The act of unlearning becomes a radical "unknowing" method—making room for things that we have not yet understood or even that we can never fully understand. Brown defines emergent strategy as “an approach for unlearning harmful structural patterns, deprogramming from a competitive worldview, and decolonizing from imperialist legacies...” (Brown, p. 1) This makes it a valuable method for educators who are helping learners get out of outdated and oppressive knowledge patterns. Unlike traditional, rigid goal-oriented strategies, emergent strategies emphasize adaptability, complexity and unknown. This process of unlearning is especially important in education, because individuals are often shaped by various harmful systems such as patriarchy, white supremacy, and discrimination against physical and mental disabilities. Similarly, in Seed, the disappearance of seed diversity is like the dominant systems erasing marginal communities and their embodied knowledge. Both works emphasize that we should regain these suppressed ways of knowing and being. Brown writes that emergent classrooms could allow students to “recreate the classroom every week, making improvements together, repurposing resources...moving into a regular practice of asking, ‘Where are we going? How do we want this to feel/work/be?’” (Brown, p. 5).

In comparing these two works, we see that they offer a shared message: knowing is a creative action of care and vision, not a passive state of confusion. In both Seed: The Untold Story and Emergent Strategy, the act of “unknowing” does not imply ignorance or a lack of awareness. On the contrary, this is a positive transformation process, which recognizes the limits of our knowledge and embraces new areas of learning we have not yet explored. In Seed, unknowing is expressed through a deep trust of farmers and seed savers in the rhythm of nature they cannot control or predict. By preserving diverse and ancient seeds, even if they are not fully sure whether they will be useful in the future, they show a spiritual humility — accepting that life itself is beyond human understanding. As one seed saver puts it, "If the house were to catch on fire... I would probably rush in here, smash out the windows and start throwing boxes of seeds out to the firefighters... because no one in the future can save them. They'll already be lost." This unconditional protection of seeds, even if they do not know when and whether they will be needed, shows a profound commitment to the unknown potential of life. This is not a blind belief, but a visionary one — reverence for the unseen and unmeasurable guides meaningful action. Similarly, in Emergent Strategy, Brown regarded unlearning as a political and educational resistance. To remove the dependence on the dominant system, it is necessary to let go of the illusion that everything must be organized or measurable. Brown emphasized that learning through intuition and collective perception shows that real transformation often comes from what we cannot plan in advance. She compares our current global situation to a flock of birds knocked off their path by a storm. Rather than giving up and settling in an unfamiliar place, the birds adapt and continue their journey. “What we must learn to do is respond to changes… [like] migrating birds… They adapt and continue south.” (Brown, p. 3) For Brown, adaptation is not just survival—it is also about how we relate to one another through uncertainty. This metaphor not only illustrates resilience, but also suggests that wisdom does not lie in a fixed world map, but in the ability to adapt. Through this transformation, Brown reinterprets knowledge as a relational process rather than static possession. These works argue that by letting go of the need to control, we can establish a deeper connection with the world around us — whether through the mystery of the earth or the complexity of interpersonal relationships.

When we face the current major crises — climate change, political instability and social inequality, our strong demand for knowledge may become an obstacle to genuine transformation. In such moments, flexibility and adaptability become crucial. Seed: The Untold Story and Emergent Strategy suggest that we need to unlearn the dependence on certainty and embrace the mysteries that life offers. This does not mean rejecting knowledge, but rather cultivating a more open and humble approach to what we know and how we know it. By doing this, we can get in touch with deeper wisdom, which can lead us to healing and a more sustainable future. Throughout this essay, we have observed how many of the principal ways of knowing epistemologically rely on unlearning patterns, and how the models we build and prove to explain the world around us inherently rely on disproving earlier ideas we held as true. Both Seed and Brown's work invite us to reconsider the dominant narratives of knowledge, and instead emphasize the importance of intuition, connection and spiritual humility. These works remind us that some truths may never be fully known, but they can still guide us towards justice and care. As we move on, the question that is worth thinking about is no longer just "What can we know?" But "How can we live wisely with things that we can't fully understand?" By challenging the knowledge model of the Enlightenment model that prioritizes proof and control, these two works invite us to imagine an epistemology theory based on collaboration with the unknown rather than in conquest.

Works Cited

Brown, Adrienne Maree. Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. AK Press, 2017

Seed: The Untold Story. Directed by Taggart Siegel and Jon Betz, Collective Eye Films, 2016.