[426] Is As Does

I find that I think I consider myself an elitist, but hold no respect or value in the arguments and odd justifications for elitism. I truly will need to be dragged into the public sphere, temporarily, to enact my civic duty, as Plato ordains, and have no genuine interest in the petty conceptions of power or control offered by modern political and financial apologists. My platform is one of ideas. First and foremost that, in general, we're all incredibly ignorant and perfectly unreasonable.


Here we can go very different directions. Some use that sentiment as an excuse to pretend everything is so unreliable they can unironically only believe in their own personal experience and justifications. Others will throw their whole backs into expressions of science as a form of "absolute truth" deliberately and haphazardly undermining how and why you pursue something scientifically. I like to think, like with all ideas, it's simply something that stands as an opportunity to be proven wrong. It's admitted that it can be wrong. If anything, it's hoped, desperately, that someone will explain in detail the depths of its wrongness.


Because we operate in ignorance. We don't really have a choice. In order to make one assertive declaration, you default yourself to denying a thousand points of view that might see it tempered or incorrect. And it's not always for lack of effort or willingness to pursue knowledge. I rest many of my positions in life on people I consider authorities on different subjects. But, I don't just "opine" that they're authorities, they tend to bring more references to a single speech or essay than one would feel comfortable contending before much study. They counted something. They did the work.


My concern is when people scapegoat, when they make excuses. I don't care what the idea is, religious, greedy, solidly ignorant like a claim about race...when it's used in service to bury the obvious questions or dodge the obvious answers, it's probably a bad idea. Watch 15 investigative pieces from Frontline or 60 minutes back to back. It doesn't matter the topic, the asshole who's lying employs the same language and often facial expressions when they're contorting a deliberately incomplete and contrived answer to account for what went wrong, particularly why they aren't the one to blame. Seriously look, from financial scams to Indian baby mills, when normal people find themselves in unjustifiable exploitative positions, they revert to children in their body and actual language, but with bigger words.


People get emotionally and personally invested. Thus, they're prone to lying and fucking things up. I don't trust anyone who's so overtly invested that of course it's in their best interest to sell me. I don't want to hear a pitch, I want the details related and to see the results myself. Because often, that's a simple matter-of-fact story. It can be a rather boring story. It's the only story I really care about.


I wish I had the perspective or the teachers to better explain to me people from history. We've all been told the Allegory of the Cave, but that hasn't been tied to Hamilton and The Federalist papers or how people in the Bush Administration literally quote them and use bastardized interpretations to justify war crimes. That makes the ideas matter in a way that "hey kids, Plato was important, so memorize his birthday and read this short story" very much doesn't. The idea that ideas need to be maintained as much as they need to be fought for rarely comes up. Things like the Civil Rights movement and women's suffrage are presented to be taken for granted on the road of progress. They're not precariously placed in history and in need of further advocacy. At least, not at my schools.


I find nothing more consequential than ideas. A single idea can provoke you to endure any hardship or create seemingly endless fallout. Every idea needs to have a check, a doubt, a reason it could falter. It's uncomfortable (who would dare to argue against Frankle and his search for meaning in a concentration camp?), awkward, and often terrifying, but there is no substitute in fighting against proud headfirst dives into wading pools. If we don't figure this out, it's the bottom floor idea I have as to why we won't last, and don't deserve to.