what i think tolkien is saying is that just as i was saying before our systems around us and our worlds are so complex that we actually will never know enough to be sure that 01:24:44 there's no grounds for hope we cannot ever know enough to be pessimists basically we cannot know enough to be pessimistic and how does gandalf put it at one point he says he this is a remarkable 01:24:57 statement i mentioned we read this a thousand times he said despair is only for those who know the future without any doubt we do not and and that for me is is the uncertainty itself 01:25:10 most people find uncertainty very scary but for me the uncertainty about the future is an enormous source of possibility it's emancipatory it means we can use our imaginations to explore alternatives