[lbo-talk] Commissar Proyect Denouncement:

Carl Remick carlremick at hotmail.com
Tue May 10 07:42:06 PDT 2005



>From: Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu>
>
>Chris:
> > This has always baffled me -- do stupid people
> > know that they are stupid?
>
>No, and that is precisely what makes them stupid. Wisdom is awareness of
>the limits of one's knowledge.

Hmm, then we're all fucked. It's not just a matter of what one doesn't know but what one *doesn't know* one doesn't know -- the unk-unks ... unknown unknowns.

In any event, there's certainly much to be said for stupidity as a stress preventative. Being stupid means never having to say you're sorry. There are millions of Americans who quite sincerely believe the US is a force for good in the world because, bless 'em, they're incapable of perceiving evidence to the contrary. Being perceptive about the state of things is a form of torture -- it awakens you to all sorts of wrongdoings and gives you an incessant nagging sense of complicity in them.

Carl



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list