There’s More of Gravy then of Grave about You
Anyone who knows me knows that I like to think. I like to think about thinking. I like to think about liking to think about thinking about thinking. Blogging takes this unsteady spiral to a whole new level. For instance, how do I know what I know, and why do I think what I think? Where do these gut feelings that I base my decisions on come from?
As the election approaches, the opinions of individual citizens, while no more important than usual, are at least touted as being potentially world-changing. I took an online poll today on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, in which I was shown two of Obama’s anti-Clinton advertisements and was asked before and after each ad what my feelings about each candidate were and whether the ad had affected them. Great fun.
The thing is, I do have opinions about all of the candidates, but these opinions are almost completely uninformed. I totally plan on educating myself before the primary, in the same vague way I always intended to do my homework in college, but I don’t honestly trust myself to walk into the voting booth with much more knowledge than I have now. So what will I base my final decision on? Barack’s presidential charm? Hillary’s presidential demeanor? Edwards’s presidential hair?
As for other topics, what about my strong feelings on . . . the non-existence of god? or the morality of homosexual relationships? or the untrammeled genius of Shirley Jackson’s writing? Where do these convictions come from? Not from a dispassionate series of logical deductions, that’s for sure. I may have a master’s degree in math, but in real life I’m much better at reasoning out why something is true long after I’ve decided it is.
Where do you think our cherished beliefs come from? From God? From Satan? From our nature, or our nurture? From Ebenezer’s undigested bit of beef, blot of mustard, crumb of cheese, or fragment of an underdone potato?
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January 25th, 2008 at 12:08 am
We can take this wisdom from the X-Files episode “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose”, written by Darin Morgan.
The killer (“Puppet”) finally meets the psychic (“Clyde Bruckman”) who has predicted his crimes. The following exchange ensues:
Puppet: “There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you for some time now. You’ve seen the things I do in the past as well as in the future.”
Clyde Bruckman: “They’re terrible things.”
Puppet: “I know they are. So tell me, please, why have I done them.”
Clyde Bruckman: “Don’t you understand yet son? Don’t you get it?” [Killer shakes his head] “You do the things you do because you’re a homicidal maniac.”
Puppet: “That… that does explain a lot, doesn’t it. It’s all starting to make sense now.”
January 25th, 2008 at 12:45 am
That . . . that is awesome. Also, obviously I need to pick up where I left off and watch the rest of the X-Files.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:51 am
P.S. Shirley Jackson’s good, but Flannery O’Connor and Chekhov knock it out of the ballpark.
January 25th, 2008 at 8:32 am
maybe not from logical deduction, but possibly logical induction; experience changes us a lot faster than axiomatic thinking.
and it’s true: Edwards has some fierce hair.
January 26th, 2008 at 10:50 am
K, agreed—but of we don’t even consciously notice the lessons we’re learning from experience, how can we know we’re learning the right ones? There are lots of lessons you can take away from any given situation, and most of them are wrong. Some of them are flat-out crazy.