Don't know much..

Well, don't feel too badly if you don't know so much, either. That is predominantly the human condition, I'm afraid, ....excluding of course the miniscule numbers of dedicated scholars and various academicians whose lives are pledged to differing degrees of pedantry ranging from the useful and understandable to the patently absurd.

I'm sorry if by chance you are one of these more absurd sort of pedants, and you take exception to that last statement, but I am admittedly one of the aforementioned predominant hordes who "don't know much." I'm not saying here that cerebral pursuits and technological achievements don't serve valuable functions for humanity–––they do, ....but simply that I believe that most of the trouble in the world is caused by some people that are convinced they know everything, and, ....By Damn, ....they are going to make sure the world knows it, too! In my humble opinion, this is where we reach the critical point of diminishing returns.

Here's something to ponder. Even someone considered by history to be one of the smartest people of all time, Aristotle, ....or was it Plato ....or Socrates? (I told you I didn't know much..) ...anyway, one of those greek dudes from way back when, summed it all up quite nicely when he said something like,"The only thing I know for sure is that I know nothing."

That's my rallying cry!!

Hey, ....if it was good enough for Aristotle (Plato?, Socrates?, whoever), then it's good enough for me. And remember too, in that much maligned, yet supremely resilient little compendium of blood, and guts, and eternal wisdom, ....the best selling little adventure book of all time, the Bible (Bible-bashers get ready to roll eyes here), there is one cautionary reference to the scholarly pursuits in one of my favorite chapters, Ecclesiastes, which seems particularly meet here to our subject, and it says something like, "Don't get too carried away with your book learnin', Sonny, or you might fuck your little head all up!"(Puritans, please lighten up..)

To get back to our song, the end of each verse beginning with the "Don't know much" line, always concludes with another line which states, "But I do know...."

Yes, there are things which we do know in spite of our grounding realization of really "knowing nothing." These things are sometimes termed universal truths, or the facts of life, and whether you take them purely on faith, or have had them violently bashed into your skull by the School of Hard Knocks, you are the lucky possessor of the true knowledge, the beginning of understanding, ....the pure and impenetrable light.

At that personally epochal moment when you join the ranks of the lucky horde who "knows he knows nothing," your understanding of the small numbers of so-called experts and know-it-all's, ....the most egregious of which are holders of official positions of power and influence, ....begins to transcend the the ire invoked by their ever-growing and condescending arrogance.

More and more understandable they become when we consider that the beginning of understanding occurs only when we realize we know nothing. The "experts," their heads all filled up with their important learning, are at some point rendered unable to understand simple words like, "no," and "we don't want any." So convinced are some of them of their almighty infallibility, they refuse to consider any view point in conflict with their own. This, in and of itself, would not be such a terrible thing–––if that was the extent of it. The problem arises when those "smart" folks start locking us dummies out here away in prisons, and even outright killing some folks, with some of those deadly firearms they have so brilliantly tried to deprive us of and monopolize for themselves.

There is a zen koan, a very old story (you want attribution? ..ask a scholar! Actually, I could go down and dig out my books and look it up, but I don't want to fuck my head all up) about the student who perplexedly asked his master why he was unable to learn the most basic of lessons. The master filled his tea cup and placed it before the student, then bade him pour more tea into the cup. The student complained that the cup was already full and would hold no more.

Have you guessed it?

That's right. The cup represented the student's head, and the tea in the pot, the master's lessons. Since the student's head was already so full, he could absorb nothing new from the lessons of the master.

Let's see, now, how's that song go? "Don't know much.."