[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]
Before Ted Williams hit the viral big time I had the original YouTube video linked on my Facebook page, for I hoped the evolution starkly demonstrated how easy it is to apparently see and classify a homeless person as unemployable yet be completely blind to their talents and potential. For some reason epistemology has been branded a "ten dollar word" of intellectual nerds, but it’s simply the process of answering the question how do you know what you know?
Many times the answer induces mild to acute discomfort, so perhaps that is the why the word is not so prevalent as geology or ecology. For millennia astronomers had identified a bright start in a prominent formation, but when telescopes arrived they revealed the star to be actually two, vastly apart by millions of light years but from out tiny window and lenses appearing as one. Oops.
Many scientists were vastly excited at the cusp of precisely mapping the human genome, very sure the code would reveal the unique brilliance of humans, our stunning wisdom and intelligence. Unsurprisingly—but to the sharp comprehension and dismay of many—our genome map revealed just another huge hominid chain of genes, large sections mysteriously turned off in a haphazard jumble. Of course our genome represents life, as any Mother or investment banker can tell you, it’s often messy.
The world and life can be a difficult, fearful place, so humans who perceive they have answers, missions or just plain like interests gather together, be it political groups, corporations or fantasy football leagues. In these environments success is based upon truths as humans know them or want them to be, and how those groups arrive at their answers very often determines their health and fate.
As political junkies we’re rightly fixated and obsessed with the Washington DC environment, the infamous Village, and holy Jesus is that group of human players lost in space, to our immense dismay completely blind to their own absurd, stupid conclusions and rationally oblivious to the disastrous results.
The American journalism corps is supposed to be the check of truth and epistemology process for the Village, and of course those clowns have completely failed, almost every actor in the Village babbles whatever nonsense is expediently necessary, which is usually screwing the little people.
The war on terror so conveniently inflames fear and locks in military-industrial complex campaign money, but the truth is that Americans are far, far more at physical risk driving their cars than from any terrorist. America is hurting real bad with our Great Recession, and to be in this Afghanistan war with so many on the streets is complete lunacy. Yet without a process to slam home the truth to the political actors involved the insanity of the war forever marches on, $120 billion annually thrown to the winds.
As Democrats and liberals we know the Village is a brutal process of power, the little people so ruthlessly knifed with unemployment or lost lives and limbs currently do not have the power to stop the Village from their lost in space disasters once embarked upon. Endless tax cuts accompanied by clueless loud ranting about deficits. Security achieved by endless killing of Afghans. Unemployment isn’t an important indicator, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average is.
The Village of DC whirls on its stage of lobbyists, politicians, aides, and bureaucrats, completely blind and unseeing the screaming insanity of war while cutting taxes and so many Americans unemployed. They’re so lost in space and clueless they really think cutting Social Security benefits is a solution in all this howling pain, of course it’s been a sick Republican goal ever since its inception, but it truly is vastly amazing how anyone thinks this can work, on any level for any American.
It’s ghastly lunacy for all of us looking on, but the Village is oblivious. Wage war, cut taxes, cut Social Security benefits, the Village hasn’t asked how they know what they know for so long they simply cannot see how sick, lost and oblivious they are.
It’s a stark, vivid reminder to any organization or person how treacherous ignoring the process of truth can be. Forget about epistemology, forget how easy it is for humans to fool and blind themselves to obvious truths and you’ll end up like DC, shattered lives of the little people and fate of the country just unseen, un-looked for and brutally unheeded.