Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Knocking Knowledge 10/29/08

Truth is the child of time,
erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee.

Immanuel Kant

***********************
It seems to me that all great, new ideas go through three steps. First people summarily dismiss and ignore them. Then they argue and put up defenses against them. And finally they adopt them.

The irony is that when you finally accept the truth of something you've been told you have usually forgotten who it was that told you, oh, so long ago. Not only that, but some people actually come to believe that it was their own idea to begin with. That's an intellectual injustice, of course, but it's inevitable.

When someone says "mark my words" you know damn well that the "my" referred to is probably going to be forgotten about, even though some day the words might be remembered.

I know things today that I refused to believe years ago. But I don't remember where I first heard them. And in my lofty aerie of intellectually superior senior citizenship (?) I know I have given young folks the benefit of my original thinking which has been met with suspicion and disbelief, and that when those folks finally know that I was right they will have forgotten all about me. That's the way it goes. That's life.

These days people are complaining about the toxicity of plastic. I was doing that 30 years ago.

I have even had returned to me one of my own quotes, one of my Vagabondisms, as an "old saying." That made me smile.

I've been humbled enough by time and by a sense of humor to be content with the realization that, about whatever it was, I was right. Forget who gets the credit.



DB - Vagabond Journeys



May all the flies stay away from your ointment.

3 comments:

Big Mark 243 said...

Wow ... Kant makes me yearn for my copy or 'metaphysics of morals'. Would have read more, if there were more people to talk to him about it.

Same with Campbell's 'Masks of God'. At the time, I was in college, and you know how intellectual curosities are, and there is always someone to talk about these things, even if you start of agreeing, how you got there may be different at the same time they are similar.

That is something I get with you, and with another cat who used to jornal, Dave over at 'Observations from my Cave'. Anyway, hope you have the best day!

Beth said...

Isn't there a saying about how when we're young, we think we know everything, but as we get older, we realize how little we know? Having said that, it's always great when we are vindicated in our beliefs.

Hugs, Beth

Joyce said...

I remember, as a child (particularly a teen) how dumb I thought my parents were. They were just so out of touch. Now, hardly a day goes by that I don't say "My mother use to day ***". Makes perfect sense now. She really was a wise woman. LOL
Hugs, Joyce