The Ricochet Glory Badge, Knowledge and Knowing What to Do
I've just been reading over the entries in our Sunday morning debate. Only Genferei made an effort to attribute the comment, for which he receives highly honorable mention. (For future reference: Given that you all have access to the Internet, I expect this. No excuses.)
Brandon Zaffini didn't use all 200 words, nor does his answer stand sufficient unto itself, but the 25 words he used were so effective that he, too, deserves highly honorable mention:
Interesting how you used events in the past to argue that [knowledge of] history sometimes leads to folly, proving simultaneously that history sometimes leads to wisdom.
That's a philosophically important point, made well.
The Ricochet Glory Badge this week goes to a last-minute entry: Grendel squeaked by just under the deadline. I used the same criteria for judging as I did last week.
For this sort of question, the answer almost always has to start with some qualification like “it depends”, or “all else being equal”. But things are never equal, and while sages have declared
- that “there is nothing new under the sun”
- that history repeats itself, happening “first as tragedy and second as farce”
- and more to the point of this discussion, that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”
knowledge of the past is of at most secondary importance.
All one needs for good judgment are clear knowledge of the facts and good principles, both regarding how one ought to act and what ends one ought to seek. Lacking these, good decisions are impossible, however broad one’s historical knowledge.
Some familiarity with history is useful, reassuring us that others have weathered similar straits. Even here, though, someone overconfident in his cursory knowledge of history or present facts can be led astray by false historical analogy. A close study of similar historical events can produce the greatest benefit, first by shaping right principles, and even more by exercising the mind and spirit a the consideration of certain situations.
You are of course welcome to dissent and to argue your case--and encouraged to do so, because this is Ricochet.
Congratulations, Grendel: Given your knowledge of what has been done, I might be more inclined to give you greater power of knowing what to do--even though you argue against it.
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Comments :
Aug '10
Re: The Ricochet Glory Badge, Knowledge and Knowing What to Do
Guess it's time to read Tuchman again. Well, at least the first 3/4 of March of Folly.
Sep '10
Re: The Ricochet Glory Badge, Knowledge and Knowing What to Do
Normally, I'd dive right in but this topic is far too close to what I do for a living and I don't want to let the cat out of the bag.
Apr '11
Re: The Ricochet Glory Badge, Knowledge and Knowing What to Do
Miss Berlinski: "Congratulations, Grendel: Given your knowledge of what has been done, I might be more inclined to give you greater power of knowing what to do".
Thank you for the honor. However, were there any chance of your inclination having a practical effect, I should be honor-bound to tell you to curb your enthusiasm. I once worked with a woman who was fond of saying that "all life replicates 7th grade". Certainly by then the future "leaders" and managers were showing their striking, even preternatural, ability to know how things should be and how other people should act--a gift of fire from the gods, indeed! For my part, I knew that if I were ever as sure about anything as they were about everything, I should be restrained as dangerously delusional.
I will take advantage of the holiday to enjoy the Glory at leisure. I shall have to find some fitting place to put the Badge when it arrives (perhaps with the lagniappe for the Ricochet Podcast Post-of-the-Week), rather than in my Self-Esteem Corner with the Silver Medal, Andria Doria Navigation Challenge 1997; Service Award, Anarchists United for Obstruction (with six oak-leaf clusters 1972-2010; Honorable Mention, The ARNOLD Everybody-Wins Physical Activity Decapentathlon 1986; six medals, Swords-on-Wheels Skateboard Fencing championships; etc.
Life is good.
Edited on Sep 5, 2011 at 12:24pm