Scarecrows - Richard Sale

By Richard Sale, author of Clinton’s Secret Wars    

     The art of having an opinion consists of our willingness to undergo the labor of ascertaining the reasons why we have it. It means carefully learning data, and then examining facts and assertions to see which are actual truths worth keeping and which are simply erroneous statements whose sole value may consist in their being familiar and personal. The virtue of facts is that they can be verified, while our feelings may only be empty biases that furnish us with pretexts or bogus reasons rather than any insight into reality. 

     To have responsible opinions then means that we are humble enough to subject our views to criticisms that may challenge their veracity or which might imply that our views are perhaps in part mistaken, or worse, complete rubbish. Feelings are fine, but they are not thought. Conscience requires that we impose some check on our subjective leanings and that check must come from those who are better and brighter than we are – those who know more than we do in areas we deem important. This should not enthrone the Expert, but the existence of such people should caution us that when we view the sun as “rising” in the morning, in spite of our unshakeable confidence in what we see, Copernicus was right and we are wrong.

 

     To the Texas Board of Education, it seems that the knowledge of history is not to be based on proven facts, because the board apparently believes that the facts consist of what the mass of us have chosen to believe they are. In a sense this is true. It is unfortunate that a major factor in our accepting the “Truth”  lies in its being familiar and convenient – conventional wisdom, in brief. The historical revisions in Texas are thus based on an impression of some undigested bits of common knowledge, not a mastery of the intricacies of the any subject itself. According to the board, we are to relax, trust our gut instincts, our unthinking reflexes, much like the employer who mistrusts the job applicant who has not bothered to shine his or her shoes and therefore does not inquire further. It’s okay to revise history based on the resentful suspicion that our views have been ridiculed and denied their real importance, not because they are perhaps parochial, partial or  mistaken, but because snotty liberals or snobs have spitefully ignored them. 

       To many people these days, there is no such thing as objectivity – everything is, after all, just somebody’s opinion, and if objectivity cannot be attained, then why labor so hard to acquire it? In our Facebook age, ignorance is a right. God created man in his image and likeness, not some paltry, defective nearsighted creature in need of a library. Standards are what the mass of us say they are, and besides, isn’t popularity the same as being superior?  Why is the High Brow so impressive when he isn’t even popular? Clearly, those who know nothing about a subject still have picked up enough phrases and catchwords to have a feeling about it, and therefore the ignorant have the same right as anyone else to voice their views.  

     Listening to much of the day’s debate on Big Government or Deficits, Jobs and the like, one gets the impression that many of the most insistent rabble-rousers are, in fact, a bit like sleepwalkers -- lost, desolate, and very frightened. They have lost respect for our national life and to them the world is degenerate and hostile. They face a paralytic, uncaring Congress, power-hungry politicians, etc.  What is surprising in listening carefully to such people is how few of their statements reflect any of the reality to which they refer.  Their protests sound like a defensive, flinching reflex and their proposals are not so much a real agenda, but a sort of scarecrow meant to frighten off opponents. 

     Thus we float along in a sea of suffocating flotsam while all around us looms the  menace of un-met challenges.

  

Comments

[Paul in NC]

"Thus we float along in a sea of suffocating flotsam while all around us looms the menace of un-met challenges."

I wholeheartedly agree, but what do we do about it?

[frank durkee]

AMEN

[VietnamVet]

Mr. Sale,

Deep down, I don’t think Americans are stupid. All of us have our own histories and schemes to make through to the next day. But, we do not readily admit that American history and news are being massaged to meet corporate needs. For example, there is no discussion of need to raise taxes. Instead, Northern Virginia is proliferating corporate Lexus Lanes rather than raising the gas tax. Nor, is it mentioned that deregulation caused the biggest oil spill ever and the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Enron is the model for deregulated American corporations. Except, in the Obama Administration all of the Wall Street executives were given a get out of jail card. Instead of the truth, America is portrayed as the Best of All Possible Worlds.

Increasing male unemployment leads to revolt. The question is if the last 30 years can be reversed peacefully. This becomes more unlikely the longer male unemployment becomes entrenched and the corruption of never ending wars eats away at the soul and treasure of America.

[Fred]

VV,

Speaking of taxes, the article referenced at the blog below links to the Bloomberg piece on Ernst & Young's tax avoidance advice. E&Y were competitors to Aurthur Anderson, the one firm that (rightly or wrongly) went belly up due to the Enron fraud.

http://crookedtimber.org/2010/05/24/the-double-irish/

[Stormcrow]

I cannot argue with Sale's piece because I agree with it.

But as long as the government, at all levels, continues to bleed legitimacy, while the press openly peddles itself to the highest bidder, and the corporations are predators to our prey, we can only expect more and more of the same.

We can also expect charlatans like Andrew Wakefield to become popular heroes, and corrupt ignoramuses like Sarah Palin to become media celebrities and figureheads about which powerful political movements are built.

What we're seeing is an entire country dying. Ours. From the brains down. It isn't pretty.

[William R. Cumming]

Great post. An argument can and could be made and I do that the notion that an educated electorate would make the wisest decisions is now completely undone by the fact that seldom is truth, candor, or other than spin conveyed to the American people by its MSM or politicians.Why? Money has captured the truth!

[dan bradburd]

As Sale suggests, the assumptionthat there are no facts, just views is pernicious at multiple levels. It affects far more than our views of our past.

One offshoot--strategically deployed--of this denial of facts is the trope that 'we still don't know the facts' and need further study to clarify them, delaying action while implausible counterfactuals (cigarettes won't harm you) have to be 'proven.'

The media, by reflexively presenting two sided talking heads on most issues, supports the view that in any dispute there are always at least two legitimate and equal views--even if one is that the earth is flat. This may be good for market demographics but it is epistemolgically bankrupt.

[John Howley]

We are wired to prefer the short-term psychological benefits of hearing our preconceptions repeated and reinforced. Listening to contrary opinions is stressful and unpleasant so most of us avoid it.

Any pollster will support this: The Typical American spends about five minutes per week on politics and policy, i.e., The Serious Matters That So Concern Readers Of This Blog. Rightly or wrongly, they are busy with Other Stuff.