I'm not sure "cognitive dissonance" is the right term for what I was referring to, although it's related. "Cognitive dissonance" means that things you think you know appear to be at odds with each other. But "not knowing" just means you don't know; you don't hold any belief with enough confidence to even make it a possible source of cognitive dissonance. The skills of being able to live with each of these things are probably related, but I don't think they're quite the same thing.

> good science and politics are inherently at odds

In the sense that politics is set up to insist on answers to questions whether they are justified by current knowledge or not, yes, I agree.