Why can’t our society improve?
Well, first things first, to improve our society, we must discover truth.
Yet, we are not interested in truth. Our attitude toward truth in this day and age rules against truth ever being discovered.
Welcome to America where truth is avoided assiduously.
In America, Dan Bongino can be heard stating on YouTube: You never ask a question that you do not know the answer to.
And I say to that: If you take that approach, you will never arrive at the truth; you will never better yourself.
Unfortunately Mr. Bongino’s belief is shared amongst the majority of the population.
Americans love machos.
Americans love winners.
Americans love people who ask questions that they know the answers to.
Only losers ask questions they don’t know the answers to.
Mr. Bongino’s dictum is shared amongst lawyers, doctors, and nearly everyone else in society who purchased their brain at K-Mart.
Why is it necessary to ask a question that you know the answer to?
Well, it is necessary if your goal is to win a debate or argument. Winning the debate is paramount in American society today.
Winning is everything in America.
Only losers discover information they did not previously know.
Americans loves winners.
This mindset is reinforced by the President of the United States.
Trump, apparently, at least according to Trump, is a winner.
Dan Bongino, I presume, is a winner also.
But what about the truth?
Would we be better off if we did ask questions that we didn’t know the answer to if it led to a greater truth?
Let’s put it this way: Would you rather win the debate and not ask questions that would lead to a greater truth, or would you rather lose the debate yet discover a higher truth even if it made you look like a fool?
In America today, it’s obvious that people prefer the former.
Americans prize perception over substance.
Yet are we better off by taking that approach?
Let’s answer this question in a different way by use of analogy.
John Wooden was a winning coach for the UCLA Bruins. He won many national championships.
At first glance, one might think that he was obsessed with winning.
Would it surprise you to know that Wooden was not obsessed with winning?
Would it surprise you to know that Wooden didn’t ask his players to win?
Would it surprise you to know John Wooden asked his players to give 100% spiritually, physically, mentally, and that if they did that the wins would take care of themselves?
Would it surprise you to know that John Wooden preferred that his players give 100% and lose than give 50% and win?
It wouldn’t surprise me at all because that’s exactly what John Wooden wrote in his book.
What this analogy illustrates is that process is important and that process is more important than the end result.
Applying this wisdom to truth and debating, one can only conclude that process is important when discussing important matters on television or in the living room.
Applying this wisdom to truth and debating, one can only conclude that we would be much better off by asking questions that we don’t know the answer to rather than avoid risking looking like a fool by not asking questions that we don’t know the answer to.
When we take a better approach to truth and wisdom, then America will be able to improve.
And not a moment sooner.
Ask questions that you don’t the answer to. You might look like a fool, but you and the world will be better for it.
Sincerely,
Archer Crosley
Copyright 2020 Archer Crosley all rights reserved.
Cowboy Archer 