Anyone who knows me knows I have an enormous ego. That's the one good thing, perhaps the only good thing about writing a blog -- you can satisfy your ego. At the same time I hope to write something that informs and entertains, otherwise what's the point -- I am no different than the smelly old man on the park bench talking to himself about the "New World Order." He has a blog too, he just spews it from the bench and no one listens. So to prevent myself from becoming like that, I'll do it here.
One of the benefits of being unemployed is that you have the time to do things you normally wouldn't. How I spend my time is doing internet research. I like to know the "facts" and not just the facts but the "truth" about things. But as Pilate says to Jesus in the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar", "But what is truth? Is truth a changing law? We both have truths...are mine the same as yours?" Truth might even be opinion because truth depends on facts and how facts are viewed. I note two quotes:
"Facts aren't simple and facts aren't straight; facts aren't lazy and facts won't wait. Facts all come with points of view. Facts won't do what you want them to."
- David Byrne, "Talking Heads"
"Conviction, no matter how fervently held, does not create truth."
- Robert Liston, "The Pueblo Surrender"
I love the second quote for two reasons, first, Liston makes a great point but he's still a nutjob who posits theories about the USS Pueblo that are insane. Second, it illustrates how the extreme right in the US lives its life -- it creates "facts" from hearsay and Fox News and generates conviction about the world that seems so far from reality as to be outrageously funny -- if it were not so dangerous.
I recall a great book I got from my mother for Christmas when I turned 16. It was a Monty Python book and it it there was an advertisement that went like this:
- the reason it rains so much is because of all the fish in the atmosphere
- from the top of the Empire State building you can see seven continents
- Angling will make you blind
It was an advertisement for a book called "The Hackenthorpe Book of Lies", and it's main claim to fame was that it contained over "50,000,000 untrue facts and figures".
I've never forgotten that ad. It serves to illustrate an awesome point. Anyone can spout a "fact". Anyone can draw a conclusion from a set of "facts". According to the extreme right, these are facts:
- Obama is a muslim
- Obama was born in Kenya
To them, these are "facts". No amount of research or contrary evidence would make these people change their minds. Why?
One of the best "Saturday Night Live" skits illustrated a great point about this. In it, the cast of SNL were pretending to be a garage band seeking to make it big. They somehow got an audition with a big name producer who came to listen, and of course they SUCKED, just like most real garage bands do. And when he was done listening the producer said to them, "Listen, boys, I'm going to do you a big favor. I'm going to save you years of searching for a label. That's because you SUCK. Give it up now. Go back to school and graduate and get real jobs as dishwashers and car wash attendants because you'll never make it as musicians. That's because you SUCK. Goodbye."
And then he leaves. The boys are crushed. They stand in the garage, dreams smashed. Suddenly one of them starts playing his guitar. The others look at him like he is crazy.
"What the hell are you doing?," one asks him, "He said we sucked."
"Right," the guitar player says happily, "he said 'WE' sucked. Not 'ME'. So I must be great."
And he goes on playing. The drummer says, "He's right. He didn't say 'I' sucked...so I must be great."
And he starts playing. And soon, the entire band is playing again -- terribly -- each thinking that he must be great. In the face of overwhelming evidence from experts, these people have deluded themselves into believing something that's demonstrably false.
This brings up my final point, also in the form of a quote. (By the way, I'll be using lots of quotes in my blog).
"The human ability for self-deception is limitless, especially when the need is great."
- H.L. Mencken
This is why you almost can never convince people they are wrong, even in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence. In this case, I quote Daniel Patrick Moynihan -- "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts."
I will strive to make sure what my OPINIONS are based upon have a foundation of facts and verifiable information that will help me draw my conclusions. It does not make me correct in my opinions -- opinions require one to draw conclusions from a list of facts and the longer the list, the more dubious the conclusion and thus the opinion. Nevertheless, I hope to at least have verity on my side.
Good luck and thanks for reading so far.
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