Learning

After ten years writing this blog, I think I have gained some knowledge. When I started out posting daily, I was asking questions and wondering about things. This blog is a commentary of what is on my mind. Oh sure, I pieced together what I had learned in past yea. I tried to use that information to make sense of the unfolding history we are now living. Along the way I learned new things. I also learned new relationships among various bits and pieces of history, science, medicine, and philosophy.

All that is good. Then I began to offer my own thoughts on a lot of things. This process turned out to be rather expansive. I was often in uncharted territory for me. I simply did not know or was very thin on background. So, I wondered aloud with readers. I posed theories, possible data linkages and the logic that then flowed forward to an unknown horizon.

I fully admit I was not certain of my logic, or even the accuracy of my recall. 

I reached out and read literature with more depth. A neighbor gave me a subscription (several years, now) of Foreign Affairs journal. This is a bi-weekly publication with essays by experts in foreign affairs and history. Deep material that clearly has the expertise and authority I lack. And just the other day a colleague in our volunteer work found a gift subscription to the New Yorker magazine I could use.

Both publications do the deep diving into issues that I write about. They present writers and thinkers who have devoted decades to their fields of study. And what do you suppose I learned from this?

Good question. I am still an amateur dabbler in many topics, but the logic seems to be solid. My theories and suppositions have been mostly correct.

This has taught me two things: first, logic is a good base to build thoughts and ideas that either prove true or false; the logical process saves us from making ghastly conclusions based on weak work. Second, I learned that many people are thinking and writing on many of the topics I felt are important and lamented that too little focus is devoted to these areas. Not so! Many thinkers are doing heavy work for the benefit of the rest of us. I am on the right track. I don’t feel so lonely now.

Well, not so fast. The rest of us still need to do our homework and be aware of the accomplishments of these other thinkers. They are onto things that our nation and our democracy need to attend to. The wise and educated should be heeded.

Democracy does not mean mediocrity governs. Far from it but it does mean that if we allow it.

Don’t!

October 14, 2021