by Sally Finck, editor
I’ve been listening lately to an economist named Thomas Sowell. In some circles he is very well known — and I remember reading his nationally syndicated op-eds in our local paper.
Sowell is African American, so those who would dismiss his works as racist might do well to know this before tossing accusations. He wrote on topics like “affordability” well before the buzzwords of the 21st century.
Among his works is a book called “Knowledge and Decisions”; what caught my attention was what’s called The Knowledge Problem. Put in brief, it means that there’s no way to distill the totality of knowledge in the sea of ideas, when making any decision. Sowell writes, “Many ideas, probably most, will have to be discarded in the authentication of knowledge.” It doesn’t mean, however, that we can’t make decisions based on authentication processes and empirical evidence. Or that we have to endlessly test ideas in order to extract knowledge.
This culture of knowledge has relevance in dealing with the political Left, as it illuminates the idea spectrum on which they operate. It has been empirically demonstrated that those who cling to Leftist assumptions are in fact clinging to a very narrow window of ideas, from which NO knowledge is produced. Why? There is no authentication process; there is no observation in nature for instance, of multiple sexes or genders.
Ideas do not equal reality; we non-Leftists see this plainly in the discussion surrounding sex and gender. Matt Walsh’s “What Is A Woman?” was one attempt to authenticate the Left’s idea that sex and gender have no concrete definitions….or perhaps ANY definition.
But because the Left silences ideas, they are not so much silencing reality, as silencing their own grasp of it. Which is why Walsh’s interviewees muted themselves often.
As Leftist ideas continue to proliferate, those embracing the vast word fluidity salad find themselves caught in a self-silencing trap: in their ignorance, the demand for evidence regarding “outdated” ideas — while failing to authenticate their own.
Recommended Reading:
“Knowledge and Decisions” – Thomas Sowell “Economic Facts and Fallacies” – Thomas Sowell