Strutting Across the Stage of Wisdom

(First published in the Bali Advertiser, August 11, 2010)

“To know that you do not know is the best. To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease.” – Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher

Americans of a particular political persuasion – at least the Americans who live mostly north of Mexico, south of Canada, and who now and then do something beside play computer games, log Facebook time and follow the intrigues of Lady G, LiLo and Paris – would have found delicious irony in the July announcement that right-wing radio and TV jock Glenn Beck may go blind from macular dystrophy.

I bear Beck no ill-will – although he is a confused, possibly deranged, con man and scam artist. There is just something irresistible about the thought of the man who claims he knows the way out of the American national morass being struck sightless. It brings a grim smile to my face. If this is divine justice, it comes with irrefutable evidence of a deific sense of humor.

There is always pleasure when designated leaders of whatever kind are shown to be fallible and foolish. It is the basis on which news agencies log every foible and track every disaster of celebrity and politician alike, with the sure knowledge that the reading and viewing public cannot resist headlines and lead-ins that tease of scandal and incompetence.

We take perverse joy in learning that religious heads sometimes don’t know which direction we should pray, that CEOs and other suits cannot prevent market crashes or correctly operate blow out preventers, that politicians and TV news folk really are just pretty talking faces who like the look and sound of their mouths as they form around particular turns of phrase.

The question is why – amid so much evidence that no one has anymore of clue than anyone else about what it’s all about – do we keep dogging after imposters and snake-oil salesman in enough numbers that what they say has weight and consequence? Perhaps it is some fundamental flaw of humanity, or maybe just an unshakeable residual childhood belief that surely our parents or some other grownups know best. It seems an assumption that we cannot overcome, this hopeful belief that somewhere out there is someone or something that is a reliable guide, an all-knowing and benevolent patron who will lead us through all trouble and strife to safe shores and gentle tides.

Over the course of my almost five decades, I have trusted in the Judeo-Christian god, several father and brother figures, a few women, an organizer and day-planner or two, and various other deities, manifestations, belief systems and sports teams. There has been a 100-percent failure rate. No entity, nobody, no creed has all the answers to all the questions; yet I, we, perversely keep assigning omnipotence to one thing after another, always expecting to find that magical mantra or person that will bring clear skies and smooth sailing for ever after.

Why do we persist? Why do we keep putting our faith in things we know are going to fail? Computers, weathermen, the prognostications of last year’s stock whiz, daily horoscopes.

The only real answer I see is that we are afraid of the Socratic admittance of ignorance. We don’t know what it’s all about, we don’t know what will keep our children safe at night, we don’t know how much longer the earth – or at least humanity’s participation in it – can last given the extent to which we’ve been fouling our only nest, we don’t know what’s coming next or what to do about it if we did.

We see “I don’t know” as being the answer of the powerless. The power, we think, is being “in the know,” having the skinny and the scoop … and that’s where strength could possibly lie, only that no one is really in the know, no one has the sanctified inside track that leads without fail to comfort and glory.

After the first few minutes of panic when you discover that the men and women on the watch are fools, that they have no idea what’s coming next anymore than you do, and that there may be no guiding, all-powerful, competent hand at the switch after all, then it is possible to sit back, relax and enjoy the wonderful jokes we play on one another when we take on airs of knowledge.

And there may be some consolation in the great leveling power of mutual ignorance, in knowing that from the lowest of us to the highest, we are bewildered when confronted with the great shell game of the cosmos and the hidden pea of truth. It is a great relief when we notice that this game is rigged and that it’s best not to play.

You and I, we know nothing, so brighten up and let’s enjoy the day.

Copyright © 2010 Lee Roy LeRoi