Opus 2026-324: Need to Know

Sometimes it is a good thing we don’t know how complicated life is.  I have been warned about reading the label on the bologna I used to eat in quantity.  I think I did a few times and I distinctly remember reading the phrase “pig snouts”.  Usually, you don’t want to know.

Watching a discussion of geopolitics set me off on this path.  I am constantly amazed at how my impressive wisdom can be derailed by simply listening to people who obviously know more than I do.  There are times when I am impressed.  Should I be?  I don’t know.  It is very possible that the talking heads with the degrees on the wall and tenured positions are making things up as they go.  Remember the way in which Margaret Mead convinced the world of the promiscuity of primitive people.  All the while they were laughing at her.  Or take the Kinsey Report.  The research was so flawed that it would not have even made a good porno movie.  In spite of that it was lapped up by the cultural gurus.  Or picture the book, The Population Bomb or Gore’s Inconvenient Truth.  People still believe them instead of their own lying eyes.

None of that takes away from my need for humility and being aware of what I don’t know.  This works in politics.  It applies in history.  It is an avenue to greater truth in theology.  There is much we can know and much we can’t.  To be honest the things we can’t know are probably not going to influence anything important.  Is there a multiverse?  Only in science fiction and college text books.  Is America a flawed nation?  Obviously but keep in mind that a slow minivan is of more use for hauling lumber than a fast Tesla.  Can anybody spell Utopia?  Can anyone point to one.

Keep learning and keep sifting what you learn.

homo unius libri