Good morning, everyone... When men reach the age of 59 years, in the majority of cases, one presumes that they have achieved some relative degree of wisdom with their years, particularly if they have managed to avoid long-term stays in the prison system or have performed any of a host of various other wildly uncontrollable actions that would tend to indicate lunacy instead of sage thinking. Of course, one must closely examine how we in modern society define wisdom.
Of course, the mental image one has of wisdom varies in this culture often depending largely upon ones employment situation. For example, I am reasonably certain that the families and loved ones of the producers of those raunchy television reality-TV shows assume that the person or persons responsible for bringing such inane and culturally-depraved shows to the television screen must be wise, since they are being paid vast sums of money for dreaming up each episode. The same can be said to apply for those closest to the highest political circles in Washington, D.C., for as inaccurate as it might be, most Americans presume that people being paid vast sums of money, at least by legal means, are sagacious individuals, indeed. One has no further to go than the debacle of Enron, where a series of purportedly very wise individuals ran their fellow Americans into the poorhouse. According to everything I have read, right up to the moment when the gavel fell, many of the high-rollers involved were viewed, if not by their families and loved ones, a large segment of the population, as being wise men and women. They made scads of money, they were powerful, entrusted with vast authority and had personal tastes in homes and automobiles as they had in larcenous schemes. Opulence, it seems, is construed by most modern Americans, as proof of wisdom, not depravity. A wise old friend of mine and I spent a considerable amount of time the other day at one of our favorite haunts discussing the relative merits of various horses we had known in our lives, and at some point I cast the opinion, like a flat-sided rock, onto the waters, that everyone should have at least one really smart horse in their life. The memory of one such really smart horse in my formative years, that saved my life from a wild cat waiting on the ledge for its dinner, came to mind. In that instance, human wisdom could be defined as how a horse had learned how to communicate its fear to humans, and I had learned to listen to my horse. If that horse hadn't been wise, I would most definitely not be here, as that wildcat was hungry. Some say wisdom accords upon those who possess it vast, lofty-sounding titles. The titles of President, Sir such-and-such or Chairman of the Board all possess an impressive and somewhat equal patina of having *arrived* at wisdom through some round-about route, and almost always most people assume the bearers of such titles possess acumen. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule in all things. If, for a minute, one presumes that George W. Bush, Jr. is wise man simply because he possesses the title of President of the United States, they are sadly misled, indeed, for the man is a dreadful comedian at the business of leading this country, and is a poseur at wisdom in how he represents our country to the world. Of course, your opinion of all politicians may differ, but I have met but few of their ilk who possess wisdom. Another back door route by which one is assumed to be wise is that of educational attainment. In theory, the education one possesses dictates their level of wisdom. However, there are vast untapped studies which clearly demonstrate, contrary to what one might think, this is not necessarily the truth, for some of the worst failings in the educational system take place at the highest levels. It has been my experience that some of the most ludicrous examples of gene-damaged, non-productive arrogance I've ever witnessed involved several members of Spokane's education system, each of whom possess PhD degrees, each of whom were totally bereft of anything resembling wisdom. If wisdom is not defined as evolving from wealth, prestigious titles or education, then what is it? More important, at least to me, is why is it people who truly possess acumen and wisdom are most often those who are most sublimely at peace within themselves and thus less likely to "toot their own horn" about how clever and wise they are? It seems a fair question to ask, given the lack of wisdom and foresight being shown by nearly everyone involved in the current effort to provide care and remedial assistance to the victims of the Tsunami in the Pacific. All the nations that were damaged, where death strode over the land, had the opportunity to obtain information about potential Tsunami waves, all of them had histories of earthquakes and the Tsunami waves that walk hand-in-hand with the motion of the earth beneath their feet. If I didn't know better, I would swear the leaders of these countries just unzipped their flies in public and admitted how lacking in wisdom their leaders most certainly are. Dave -- Dave Laird ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) The Used Kharma Lot Web Page: http://www.kharma.net updated 11/24/2004 Usenet news server : news://news.kharma.net Fortune Random Thought For the Minute Oh, love is real enough, you will find it some day, but it has one arch-enemy -- and that is life. -- Jean Anouilh, "Ardele" _______________________________________________ Libnw mailing list [email protected] List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw
