On the utter ignorance and criminal stupidity, voting for McCain/Palin.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Ed Tubbs

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Subsumed within the theory that division of labor is the most efficient allocation of labor resources is the fact that, as no one is or can be authoritative in all realms of human endeavor, being ignorant of the consequent elements of numerous disciplines is nothing to be either embarrassed or ashamed about.

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Unless you’re a physician whose specialty deals with diabetes, you probably don’t need to have expertise in the body’s metabolizing of proteins and sugars, and so forth. Thus, if you were to say, “I don’t understand,” to a physician who is attempting to explain the complexity of the process to you, it would be unfair for anyone to think the less of you. And, although being able to expound on Newton’s First Law of Inertia, which pertains to a moving body’s tendency to continue in a straight line, is probably not essential to any part of your daily life, if you’re heading into the outer curve around a mountain bend at 50 miles per hour, you absolutely need to have a solid working knowledge of the underlying principle. Failure to grasp the principle may well result in your getting a final grade of “F;” emphasis here is on “final.”  

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I’m making an interjectory request of all the so-called Christians out there: The next time you tell, or hear, of the Parable of the Good Samaritan, understand it is not an allegory concerned with helping a stranger in need, it is distinctly and succinctly about the evil inherent in bigotry. Through the parable, Jesus exquisitely illustrated how the prevailing premise — that no good thing came out of Samaria, as bigoted a notion as any — exemplified the inherent ignorance imbedded in any hatred-laden broad brush presumption based on someone’s genetic associations. Should, or when the occasion arises that you hear someone speaking of it, or asking about it, please be certain to correct the teller, or instruct the inquirer of its authentic lesson. (Tragic that an atheist would have to remind or educate self-proclaimed advocates of the faith concerning perhaps what is the core principle of the faith.)

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Thomas Jefferson sagely observed that, “the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” As often as we’ve heard, especially from the Right, that “freedom isn’t free,” it might be useful to insert here that a read of the Federalist Papers manifestly concludes that our founding fathers, the very authors of the Constitution, were primarily concerned that the “vigilance” to which Jefferson referred was vigilance directed inward, at domestically residing persons and associations and alliances. If there were perils, and there were many, overwhelmingly the greatest threats to the republic and to democracy would all be home grown. Those are the individuals and factions we were charged with monitoring.

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Not Jefferson, not Hamilton, nor Madison nor Jay nor any of those who bequeathed to those of us who call America our home ever construed that “vigilance” was an obligation to be borne by only an elect few. You, me . . . all of us, each and all, retain a sacred obligation to be wary of those who would presume to govern us. Folks, we are the “people” in “We the people . . .”

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During Thursday’s debate, Sara Palin tried being cutesy when she exclaimed, “Say it ain’t so, Joe, there ya go again pointing backward.” She suggested the same relative to global climate change, that we ought not devote much energy worrying about what caused the problem, rather that we need to focus on correcting it. These notions are beyond idiocy. Because, unless you understand the cause of a problem (Any ‘problem’ at all), it is impossible to effectively and efficiently begin trying to figure what steps might ameliorate it. Ignorance of the past might well irretrievably doom the future. And voluntarily forsaking the pursuit of sufficient knowledge concerning the past (history), or how a thing is supposed to work, is stupidity writ huge.  

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