Joel Achenbach and Gene Weingarten are the occasional voices of sanity in my life. Every Sunday I read their columns and I frequently want to wave the thing in everyone's face to make sure they read it too.
And hey! You can. Good old WaPo has them online. Today I'm going to bug more than just my family with Joel A's column because I think it's important.
Maybe I love the column because I question every decision I make, including which brand of dog food to buy. Maybe it's because I've paid attention through these GWB years. Whatever the reason, I'm firmly convinced (usually) that a lack of self-questioning isn't a sign of strength. It's a fool or a coward's route to an easy answer.
Here's a link to Joel's column today
a bit of a preview: Three Cheers for Nervous Hand-Wringing
Here's who we need in Washington: Socrates. The Greek fella. We need him not because of what he knew, but because of what he knew he didn't know, which was pretty much everything. He was one of the all-time great doubters. Listen to Loyal Rue, a professor of science and religion at Luther College, describe him:
"He would say things like, 'How do you know that? What's the evidence for that? What do you really mean when you say that? Here's the implication of that claim. Here's the danger you get into if you try to generalize that claim and apply it to everyone.' "
Give Doubt a Chance: This could be a rallying cry for our troubled times.
Go on, read the rest. It'll help you feel better about not making up your mind so quickly as some Decider Folks do