Undersea foolishness
A US Navy submarine was reported to have run at full speed ten days ago into an undersea mountain that was not on the charts. Blame immediately was cast on the people who did not update the chart after a satellite image taken five years ago indicated that a mountain was there. But was the chart really wrong? The part of the chart shown in The New York Times didn't show that there was a mountain there, but on the other hand it didn't show that there wasn't a mountain there either. In the region where the collision occurred, the chart showed no soundings, no contour lines, nothing but a reported spot of discolored water. That area was clearly uncharted.
If the chart had shown a mountain, that area should obviously have been avoided. If the chart had shown that there was not a mountain there, the sub crew would have been justified in proceeding full speed ahead without sonar, as they did. But because the chart showed no information there at all, they should have proceeded with caution, which they didn't.
Too many people have a tendency to believe that every question has an answer. Ignorance is intolerable to them. If they don't see a mountain, they will either conclude that there is no mountain, or (if they want a mountain) they will insist it's there even if it's not. They can't accept the fact that nobody knows whether or not there's a mountain there. (I'm using "mountain" as an illustration; think of other examples.}
I like the song that goes "I'll never know what makes the rain to fall; I'll never know what makes the grass so tall," because in spite of that admission of ignorance, the singer says "I'll get along as long as a song is strong in my soul."
There's a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge (vs. ignorance) consists in how much you know. Wisdom (vs. foolishness) consists in how much you realize you don't know.
If the chart had shown a mountain, that area should obviously have been avoided. If the chart had shown that there was not a mountain there, the sub crew would have been justified in proceeding full speed ahead without sonar, as they did. But because the chart showed no information there at all, they should have proceeded with caution, which they didn't.
Too many people have a tendency to believe that every question has an answer. Ignorance is intolerable to them. If they don't see a mountain, they will either conclude that there is no mountain, or (if they want a mountain) they will insist it's there even if it's not. They can't accept the fact that nobody knows whether or not there's a mountain there. (I'm using "mountain" as an illustration; think of other examples.}
I like the song that goes "I'll never know what makes the rain to fall; I'll never know what makes the grass so tall," because in spite of that admission of ignorance, the singer says "I'll get along as long as a song is strong in my soul."
There's a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge (vs. ignorance) consists in how much you know. Wisdom (vs. foolishness) consists in how much you realize you don't know.
posted by GrumbleGrouch at 4:40 PM
1 Comments:
It always puzzled me that those who had attended the same university, studied at the same feet of clay, and then ended up in the same teaching area as I could be so ignorant and unwise. Silly and naive me, I thought that education would open up other's eyes the same way it had mine. Not that we'd agree on everything, but that we would be able to share and discuss and keep learning. I came to see, however,as you point out so succinctly, that knowledge indeed not the same as wisdom.
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