YOU DON'T SAY!
We all make judgments every day.
How well qualified we are to do so, is a matter for serious questioning. The urge to do so is one of today’s greatest temptations, especially those of us who, by circumstances, appear to be on the edge of becoming seriously informed on a given subject up for judgmental comment. Far too often we are “students of...” rather than “spokesperson for...” the subjects on which we tend to pontificate.
` It has been said that no one person can know everything, and that is more and more factual today than ever before as our computerized culture continues to generate new information at double the given rate at any set time. We have, long ago, done all we could to keep our educational systems apart from reality. Only now, do we see some signs that segments of our system are becoming aware of the fact that no man or woman be a seen as a sort of container to be stuffed with all that we seem to know for regurgitation at a future time of need.
This is not and an impersonal thing. either. I accuse myself of doing just this sort of thing quite often. I am aware of this and see it as a weakness I must seek to change. I have cringed inwardly upon finding myself and my words being quoted as “authority” elsewhere on the Internet.
Think of it. What is your place in this world of information? I always try to leave a doorway for anyone who thinks otherwise to speak up. They rarely do so.
There is a little-used box on the lead page of each of these essays making it possible for anyone who disagrees to reply, question, comment or cuss-out if that is their mood at the moment.
Among the judgments I have been led to accept accept as being more and more common now. has been the glaringly accurate fact that so many seem to depend on others to determine what they believe. There was a day when newspapers, editors and other writers, determined what residents of their area “believed” perhaps, then radio and a magazine-oriented phase had some influence for a while, before TV moved in and took over the major power concerning what people ought to do with their lives
That, to me, indicates where we stand today -each of us being called upon to make a judgment concerning to what degree TV should determine what we do with our lives. Many of us make or re-make such a choice every day.
Where, I ask, is such a path leading us?
A.L.M. February 10, 2004 [c451wds]
