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CSotD: The Curse of Certainty
In Agnes (Creators), Trout is barely pretending to be obsessive about uncertainty, however she’d do properly on social media, the place knee-jerk skepticism is mostly mistaken for knowledge.
It’s good to be skeptical. You must query every thing.
Howsoever, there’s a stage of fundamentalist disbelief which is each bit as irrational as basic perception. Additionally, equally smug and equally tiresome.
I don’t know the way anybody may be sure about issues that defy proof, and one of the best I’ve ever managed was agnosticism.
The Trojan Battle, in any case, was dismissed as legend, till they discovered the ruins. That doesn’t, nonetheless, imply that Athena and Ares took sides within the battle.
Ditto with most oral traditions. Ditto with most spiritual traditions.
Granted, uncritical perception and absolute denial every present a satisfying sense of certainty, if that’s what you require.
Nonetheless, Denver Put up founder Frederick Bonfils stated “There isn’t any hope for the happy man.”
(I’m skeptical about whether or not he stated it first, however I’m keen to imagine he did say it.)
This Arctic Circle (KFS) got here out just a few days earlier than Captain Kirk went into sorta-space, which geek-event has spawned plenty of cartoons. I like Hallatt’s extra normal statement.
I’m undecided anybody can obtain knowledge by spending a couple of minutes on high of the troposphere, and I’d be extra inclined to belief the insights of somebody who had orbited the Earth a few instances and had time to recover from the giddy sensation of zero-gravity and ponder the scene beneath.
That’s with out opening the can of worms over whether or not you may get deeper insights from Nichelle Nichols or George Takei than it’s best to anticipate from William Shatner.
Nonetheless, I’d anticipate a billionaire to study extra by spending per week in a tent on the shores of Jenny Lake than by spending half an hour in a capsule on the sting of area.
Although these penguins don’t point out any return, which makes me extra in favor of their proposal.
DD Degg already famous Candorville (WPWG)‘s earlier commentary on Shatner in Space, however I discovered immediately’s ruminations on life in a small metallic capsule extra fascinating.
I had fantasies of touring the nation in a camper with my trustworthy canine at my aspect, till I realized that “Travels With Charley” was, at best, fiction and perhaps a total fraud.
I favor “Sullivan’s Travels,” which by no means pretended to have truly taken place, an element that gave Preston Sturges an important deal extra latitude to inform some truths.
When you actually did lower free in a camper, you’d solely have sufficient area for about two adjustments of garments, whilst you’d have to decide on between paying for campsites — which may readily exceed the price of renting an condominium — or residing with a jug of water and a camp rest room in a really confined space.
Wholesome skepticism contains recognizing the distinction between an fascinating trip and a sustainable way of life.
To not point out accepting the probability that you simply’d solely be joined by your canine, not by Veronica Lake.
Talking of whom — Charley, not Veronica — Pickles (WPWG) had a short arc this past week, reflecting on the life spans of canines and, thus, the short-term nature of their companionship.
I’m not as mushy about it as Nelson, however I do suppose that every canine has classes to impart and that you simply’re a greater proprietor to the subsequent one for it.
And, like Nelson’s grandpa, I’m on the stage the place my present pup has a very good probability of outliving me, which does deliver some philosophy into it.
That’s additionally room for some skepticism, as a result of it’s not a matter of whether or not I truly imagine my canine shall be ready for me within the subsequent life.
It’s a matter of whether or not I may deal with an afterlife that included a dozen canines, and that’s earlier than we get into the query of how my ex-gf and ex-wife and I might type out which canines have been ready for whom.
An eternity of alternate holidays and half-summers isn’t my imaginative and prescient of paradise. “The place’s his good collar? And why haven’t you been clipping his nails?”
Nonetheless, I’m not less than keen to increase scripture sufficient to imagine that, in heaven, they neither poop, nor require to be scooped, however are because the angels.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Beautiful timing right here, as a result of yesterday I took a leaf-peeping journey as much as my outdated stomping grounds alongside the shores of Lake Champlain, and stopped in to see my former associate on the enterprise beat on the newspaper of which he’s, 20 years later, the editor.
Typically, we simply divided issues up, however one story we coated as a staff was the controversy over Alar, which was sprayed on apples to maintain them from dropping earlier than they have been ripe. The Champlain Valley is a serious apple-producing space, so we not solely coated it over a number of weeks when the story broke, however once more the subsequent yr when growers confronted a harvest with out it.
I’m keen to wager that banning Alar didn’t make most apples natural, however, then once more, I’d be keen to wager that they have been natural again in her days.
Which doesn’t increase practically the variety of questions that come up in MotM, a joke in regards to the non-skeptical certainty that plant-based is robotically virtuous.
I’ll stipulate that consuming much less meat could be higher not just for us however for the planet, however let’s not go overboard right here. Even a vegan society would have just a few wrinkles to work out.
As an example, the Bible then goes on to distinction Adam and Eve’s vegan and carnivore sons.
Which raises the essential theological query:
How lengthy did Cain hate his brother?
Frazz (AMS) actually tweaks my skeptical — maybe cynical — aspect, since I ended pondering of school as house midway by my sophomore yr and I nonetheless consider the place I grew up as “house.”
And, because it occurs, when my boys have been faculties, I stipulated that, whereas I’d take pleasure in it in the event that they have been shut sufficient to come back house for Thanksgiving, I needed them far sufficient away that they’d should do their very own laundry.
Wings and roots. And possibly a compass.
