What Should We Do While Facing Uncertainty? Don’t Ask Arthas

A few years ago, I spent nearly two months in Azeroth. My lovely cousin Muradin, the famous dwarf, invited me for a trip over Eastern Kingdoms. Unfortunately, my arrival took so long that Muradin has already left the continent. The device I used to travel across the universe had to recharge, so for two months I had to stay in Ironforge.

Terrible stories were told about my brother’s fate and, what is even more horrifying, about the deeds of the local authority, Prince Arthas Menethil. He has purged the whole city Stratholme, because it was contaminated by the Plague. The so-called Plague had magical nature. It was caused by Fel power.

I’ve heard thousands of stories like in our lovely multiverse. However, what I have called the Arthas problem is quite unique in its essence. It can give us some thoughts about how kind-hearted people with a strong ideology can act in unpredictable circumstances.

Let’s try to analyse the decision well-known prince made. Yeah, the fel Plague had magical nature, but the results of contamination by this thing were horrible.

It turned people into zombies, slaves of the dark powers that aim to ruin the kingdom Arthas had to rule. He has observed all this during his travel across some lands in the kingdom with his mage-friend Jaina. Will you be pleased to see people of your country turn into monsters by the weird stuff recognized by the smart person as something you cannot deal with easily?

Arthas didn’t listen to his mentor Uther.

Arthas was full of doubts about Stratholme destruction for sure. But he was in the situation of complete uncertainty. Jaina and his mentor Uther wanted to explore the question deeply with the efforts of mages from Kirin Tor. But this might have taken weeks or even months. During this time the people in the whole country might get the infection.

Uncertainty makes us think differently. It assumes that we have equally problematic decisions and outcomes they can cause. In such conditions, any tiny factor can play a huge role.

In Arthas’ story, the factor we should mention is his call of duty. The kindness and noble feelings mixed with the understanding of the burden you carry with you. Arthas thought that his destiny is to save these people. And he wanted to do it here and now. To fix something immediately is quite an emotional decision that many people make in an uncertain situation but doing so being in power is extremely harmful.

The worst choices we do alone. Standing one by one with our emotions.

The main mistake Arthas has made is to ignore his friends. To ignore the possibility to fix everything collectively. The harder the problem we face, the smaller chance we will handle it on our own. I think, everyone suffers from such behaviour, but those in charge cannot afford it for themselves. They will start a sequence of irredeemable actions that will cause bigger problems.

We should overcome the fear of uncertainty by standing together against it. The higher the responsibility we feel on our shoulders, the lower probability we will adequately estimate our chances.

Glad that Muradin is okay after all. He was Arthas’ close friend for many years. But the sequence of wrong decisions famous prince made has broken even the tightest friendship. Muradin got well, but the people of Stratholme died horribly. Perhaps, we can learn from this a lot. No matter how strong and powerful you are, the mistakes you make can cost lives, if you are guided by emotions emerged in total loneliness.