Opus 2013-254: The Question of Why?

Alton Brown is not known as a philosopher.  He is known for his cable cooking show.  Granted, he has a novel approach, but he is a food preparer.  In spite of that, as I was reading through one of his books I came across this.

“I know there are those who would say, ‘who cares?  As long as I know how, why bother with why?’  I can only offer that for me, until I deal with the why, I don’t really know the how...if you know what I mean.” page 7

The question of “why” is of great importance in a free society.  Just because we can doesn’t mean that we should.  We need people asking the reason behind the action.  It has to do with morals, ethics, goals and, yes, consequences.

Animals can be trained to push buttons and do simple tasks but they cannot be trained to think.  We need to teach people to understand the reasons why they are doing things.  In a crisis this will help them make decisions when there is no one to tell them what to do.  This is called growing up.

So ask “Why?”  Ask it in all areas of your life.  Drive people nuts.  Make them think.

Brown, Alton.  I’m Just Here for the Food.  New York:  Harry N. Abrams, 2006.

homo unius libri