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The Young Inconsequentials
I haven’t posted in…like…forever. But all the recent Thomas Sowell posts got me thinking (as Sowell tends to do for all of us). His concept of “consequential knowledge” versus “inconsequential knowledge,” introduced in Intellectuals and Society, has always stuck with me because, you see, I have no consequential knowledge. Zero. Zilch.
I am fully aware that in the coming Zombie Apocalypse I will be one of the first to be pushed outside the safety of the compound, provided only a gun with a single bullet, while the useful humans attempt to make their escape. You see, I write music for a living. And there is nothing terribly consequential about that when the world is coming apart at the seams.
Bottom line, I am pretty much useless in a less-than-civilized society.
In that way, I share a great deal in common with the Left Wing protestors and urban terrorists now plaguing certain cities in America. These poor people have no genuine consequential knowledge – no skill set that really matters in the real world. Many of them – young, middle-class white kids – are angry because they know deep down they’ve wasted they’re lives on a useless education in some sort of “Studies” program. They don’t know how to do anything useful, so they just wanna tear everything down.
But here is where the Young Inconsequentials (yes, I just made that up) and I differ. I’m wise enough to know that I can’t survive without all the Consequential folks that tend to keep society ordered and moving along. (For crying out loud, I don’t even own a gun – and I live in Texas!) I’m no idiot – I know full well that artists, philosophers, and “Studies majors” are at the bottom of the “Call in Case of Emergency” list. I need Consequential folks to keep things running, so I can make music and get paid for it.
Sadly, the Young Inconsequentials don’t see that. They don’t yet realize that should they get their wish for society to crumble, their own complete and utter uselessness will cause them to be the first ones pushed outside the walls to slow the zombie onslaught.
So then, how hard is it to learn to be a plumber? (Asking for a friend.)
Published in General
I’m afraid I never watched those. I was in college when the show aired. So I guess I should have watched Old Schoolhouse Rock. :)
What kind of music do you write ?
Stories are the most important things to human beings with the possible exception of their Mom’s or their children. Telling the right story is essential for everything.