A friend of mine sent me an email with a bunch of pithy bumper stickers on it. I liked them all. There was however one that spoke to an issue very near and dear to my heart. The bumper sticker said “Try being informed instead of just being opinionated.” Good thought.

In the last couple of generations we as a people have been pushing the idea that everyone should have self respect and should learn to love themselves. It somehow sounds very good until you realize that having self-love and self-respect without being taught first to love others and respect others is the low road to self centeredness. Along with this concept we taught that without actually respecting others we are supposed to respect everyone’s opinion.

So somehow the very idea that you were so special as to come up with an opinion makes that opinion worth respecting. The persons thoughts should not be judged on their merit because of their content of truth. They should be accepted into the free marketplace of ideas simply on the basis of their existence. Of course acceptance of a concept without proof of its veracity is the lazy man’s way of gaining acceptance for himself. No worry about deep or precise thought, no struggles with truth just form any inane thought, snatched from the realm of mental indolence and every one smiles and nods and pretends to pause to consider your latest drivel. Don’t we feel better. Suzie and Johnny can’t think and continually talk out of turn on subjects they know nothing about. They will never further man’s state of existence, but they feel good about themselves.

The current popular culture involves a great deal of language without precise meaning. Look at the words that I tend to use. I have felt constrained to use simple wording for years now. I have played into the pattern laid by the prevailing culture of slovenliness. In using the words and concepts I used before a few people were put out with me because they thought that I had an unusually high opinion of myself. I never stopped to think how odd that sounds. But listen to youngsters and you will find that some are maligned for being “brainiacs”. The really knowledgeable youngster among them will be the one who can “text” using the mutated language that those who “text” use. “I’ll text you”? “Don’t text while driving”? When did the word that is used to refer to symbols used to construct words become a verb?

The language itself and the use of it has gone rogue. No one really knows what is being said or how to exactly say what they want. That is why they constantly ask, “you know what I’m saying?”. The assumption is that you don’t.

The assumption is that you also don’t know what you are talking about. Most of those listening to you don’t know what either of you are talking about. One of my favorite talk show hosts has a “Man on the street Thursday”, where he sends his assistants out of the studio to go to the street and ask people, who is the vice president and speaker of the house, etc. He quotes Marxist doctrine to them and then asks them if they agree and when they do he reveals the author of the idea to them and usually they are shocked to know that they are agreeing with Marx and Engals. It is a shame how so many on the street have opinions of how the economy should be run but can’t even tell you who John Maynard Keynes is. They have no knowledge of the U.S. Constitution and yet they feel qualified to put people into office to defend that constitution and govern within the confines of that very same constitution. Too many people have opinions about “the separation of church and state” without knowing that the words “separate” and “church” and “state” never appear in the first amendment. The common man doesn’t know why phylogenic recapitulation is wrong or what it is, they don’t have any idea what the tablets of Rome are they can’t tell you who wrote the rules for a republic or where he came from. There is little hope of getting an explanation of the difference between a republic and a democracy, let alone finding out which we live in, from the common man on the street.

All to often we train up our children with all sorts of knowledge of computers and other gadgets without teaching them true wisdom and how to think. Thinking is hard work. Learning how to think is not something one does without instruction and first knowing some goodly amount of solid truth. Precision of language goes with precision of thought. When a person thinks of how to perform some physical task they see it done in their mind’s eye then they perform it. But when thought is given to conceptual matters the thought occurs in words. That is why precise language is required to foster precise thought. Respect for the truth comes from the ability to understand that we are not omniscient. Thus we gain the ability to learn and when we learn to think accurately and discern truth then we become something more than a learned barbarian.

It is said that the words of a fool are many, and iron sharpens iron. So we should seek out the wise and avoid the fool. Challenge opinions and find out their origin. Look for the truth. Be prepared to offer a ready explanation for your belief. Then you deserve to enter the free marketplace of ideas where opinions will be judged on their content of the truth.

Ipsa Conteret,
Herbs