How Should I Know?

Why is existential self-examination synonymous with some type of mental and emotional instability? If anything, isn't having the presence of mind to stop and question even the most mundane or seemingly established parts of your life indicative of a particularly solid mindstate? I mean, you can't get perspective on a mountain while standing on a fragile precipice halfway up the climb. It's only from the ground, and at a distance that you can really see the big picture. But what about the little bits that make up that big picture? Is that where the mental instability comes in? Does the so-called identity crisis come from being unable to see the forest through all the trees? Or spending too much time looking at the brush strokes to appreciate the holistic effect of expressionist art? I think that's bullshit. You need to pay attention to everything. You certainly won't understand it all, but to assume that taking any one perspective is the most effective (or worse, the least dangerous) is risky, and to assume that any one person could be sure of which perspective to take is pushing the limits of hubris. How could I possibly know what is best for me? I don't know shit about shit. All I know has come from my experiences, and while I may have developed a certain adeptness in navigating the world in which I function, I certainly don't have enough perspective to stand behind my choices or preferences as "correct." This is particularly true in terms of choices being understood not only as defined by what you embrace, but also by what you reject. The vast majority of things we don't do are rejected because we don't do them. Now, I'm not saying we should all go do everything. I'm certainly not very much of a risk taker. All I am saying is that everyone needs to get off their high horses about knowing what's right and wrong, even just for themselves. Being right or wrong shouldn't be the final standard by which our choices are evaluated because the rubric by which we determine rightness or wrongness is so limited that it's essentially invalid. At the very least it is totally constructed -- functional perhaps, but necessarily taken with a grain of salt.