Dear Friends,
It seems to me, one of the biggest problems I have with the expert class… is their stupidity. Foolishness that can be summarized as the paradox of the preface. Where all human beings are subject to being wrong, even when we’re confident we’re right, so certainty is absurd. A common example is, “a book starts by claiming everything in it is true, but the author admits he could be wrong.” Wise people understand that they can’t always be right. Even someone who knows all humanity knows, about a given subject, only knows as much as humanity… and no more. Moreover, language is a poor vessel to carry certain ideas. Which makes censorship, laws for our own benefit and regulations to force change… literal absurdities, foisted on us by confident fools.
To be human is to be subject to error. Those then who think themselves always right, are stupid. As the certain in themselves, are fools, those who follow them are tools. Tools of disaster. Because even if a would be despot is right 99%, he or she is wrong 1% of the time. That 1% quickly fluffs up to catastrophe, when someone with unlimited power implements it. Humility isn’t a weakness, as many narcissists think, it’s wisdom in action. You don’t see many humble people ushering in genocides, revolutions or wars. That’s for the confident. Those who used law to force vaccination were confident they were right. The results are, perhaps millions of deaths from the side effects, and millions of children with heart ailments as well. Certainty leads to atrocities while humility leads to blessings.
Mankind is in our teenage years when it comes to knowledge of the universe. We think we know it all. So our experts think they know it all too. They don’t know what they don’t know. But in a century, they’ll look back at us an laugh, like we laugh at the doctors who used leeches in the Middle Ages. It won’t take as long because the rate of learning is accelerating. Therefore, our experts may have the best of intentions, but being ignorant of their ignorance, makes them overly certain of their conclusions. Thinking to themselves, “I know all there is to know about X, Y and Z.” Not considering, all there is to know, doesn’t include all that’s knowable… simply all that’s known. This is another way the certain, confidently lead us into disaster, after atrocity. Later, the humble lead us back out.
Then there’s the confidence that comes from the ability to manipulate language. As Kung Sung Lung’s famous analogy proved… “A white horse is not a horse but a black or yellow one is…” Illustrating the weakness of language and why it only approximates reality and thought. Because our very ideas of words change from person to person. Take the word dog. When you imagine a dog you probably imagine an archetype, based on a dog you saw or had as a kid, as I do. The thing is, we aren’t basing them on the same dog. So our ideas differ about a word as basic as dog. How much more so about the words, law, capitalism and government? Arrogant people use language to manipulate. Humble people use language to communicate. While wise people understand language is an expedient.
Certainty then is associated with foolishness… and humility with wisdom. No wonder the world is in the shape its in. The foolishly confident charge to lead, while the humble and wise stand back, unwilling to make a mess of things. Those who are certain never expect to create disasters after their atrocities. They confidently believe they will usher in a new Eden. Once they break a few eggs. That has been the mindset of every person who’s committed an atrocity. They’re confident in their truth. Never imagining they could be wrong, they don’t know all that’s knowable, or they could be manipulated. That’s why I say, stupid fools are certain, so they commit atrocities. That’s how we identify them. They censor, don’t listen, and are willing to commit any atrocity… to save the world..
Sincerely,
John Pepin
