Desperately Lacking In Wisdom, 61
And they think we’re burning witches when we’re only burning weeds. (Gilbert Keith Chesterton, 1874-1936)
The Weeds In All of Us
Have you noticed the public vitriol directed at the passengers, whose small submarine imploded a few days ago; the rich that “were going to visit a mass grave site for fun,” as some said. Of course hubris, a sense of entitlement are likely part of the backlash directed at these very comfortable site seekers yet, how much is really about a general envy of rich people—that we secretly want to be like—and how much is due to the parasitic and narcissistic nature of many wealthy folks in the U.S. and elsewhere?
For me it most importantly says something about human disconnect and unawareness of the world we’re part of and reside within, which is now an existential concern ( a growing number ) that could affect every single human on the planet. Nevertheless, think hard about the glib idea of “good riddance,” just one more species going extinct.
It probably won’t be like an imploding submarine, a design issue, an engineering flaw. Why wouldn’t people of course deny climate change, a few even threatening those that do, and the real possibility of actual extinction….
Some people might remember in 2015 that the former Republican senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, a dingy climate change denier, brought a snowball into the senate to demonstrate that it was simply cold outside and climate change was pretty much “nonsense.”
We are most definitely lacking wisdom in all the usual places. But it’s going to require much more than a condescending chuckle from those of us that might regard people like Inhofe as merely simple-minded fools, liars or both.
Lacking wisdom, however, is not a crime but it could be dangerous to our health and our progeny’s existence in the not so long-run. I know, it’s going to be inconvenient for a great many of us if we choose to become aware. For some others it could be an unimaginable horror.
How well do we tell stories? Well, we’ve only been telling them for at least 100,000 years. We ought to have some idea how; after all, we certainly create tall tales every day when trying to sell hamburgers, cars, ourselves—wisdom … and our pickleball ranking. It is a short step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
How well do we know what motivates people to take action? It turns out that we really know quite a lot, in many cases more than we think we do. What is required is that we actually do something and not merely chuckle about the ignorance of others or throw up our hands and shout good riddance.
Next: Botany of the mind
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