THE VINDICTIVE TRUTH

[Valin]

Dr. Sainty: 10/2/12

 

Wretchard has a great post talking about "The Fifth Kind of Man":

 

The problem with an administration that relies upon spin is that it forgets how vindictive the truth can be. The truth bites back — and hard. But in an environment where politicized media and bureaucracy will tell its masters only what they want to hear the truth is concealed beneath the talking points until it is too late. In that regard, perhaps the Iranians should have the last word. A thirteenth-century Persian-Tajik poet, Ibn Yamin wrote that there were four types of men.

 

One who knows and knows that he knows… His horse of wisdom will reach the skies.

One who knows, but doesn’t know that he knows… He is fast asleep, so you should wake him up!

One who doesn’t know, but knows that he doesn’t know… His limping mule will eventually get him home.

One who doesn’t know and doesn’t know that he doesn’t know… He will be eternally lost in his hopeless oblivion!

 

 

And then there’s the fifth type of man. The man who doesn’t want to know because he thinks it doesn’t matter.

 

 

I differ a little from Wretchard on the last: it's not that he thinks it doesn't matter as much as it actually matters so much--and that is precisely why why he doesn't want to know about it.

 

The truth is indeed vindictive--but in a horribly passionless way. Likewise, reality, the space where truth resides, has a calm persistence and patience that is unmatched by even the most desperate attempts by the human species to avoid it.

 

Nevertheless, human ingenuity has discovered many ways of temporarily hiding from the truth; obscuring the truth; and when necessary, lying about the truth in order to avoid reality and its consequences.

 

(Snip)