1. There are many good and very decent folks who are what I would
call unconsciously competent vis a vis justifying or
explaining how it is they imagine they know what it is they
think they know (epistemology). They cannot properly
articulate or give an account for the common sense and wisdom
they display in their daily lives. Our country (USA) and many
others (let's not be jingoistic!) are filled with decent,
hard-working folks who, through consensus building, come up
with pretty darn good prescriptions for what ails society, not
perfect but my favorite characterization: good enough! Now,
political wisdom is a practical reality that presumes some
moral consensus and representative government also brings in
specialization and expertise (with checks against elitism).
Here's the rub: I think the average fellow gets confounded
when trying to justify her political positions and moral
beliefs because the media and other professional elites are
framing up the issues and raising the questions with terms and
categories and philosophical-ideological frameworks that do
NOT successfully refer to reality. More simply put, the
answers common folk give are not as wrong as the questions
that are being put to them! The average question put to the
average person by our media and academic elites is --- how can
I put this? --- STUPID! I never studied philosophy or
metaphysics formally or academically but I learned their terms
and categories and employ them only in an effort to engage and
subvert it all (or reveal, rather, how all that bullcorn selfsubverts!). Common sense needs no apologetic or highfaluting
philosophical defense (but it does need critique, which can be
provided by a community of good-hearted and self-critical
people). I guess I am defending my optimism by saying that: I
know people come off as rather ignorant in articulating the
political and even moral positions but if you ignore what the
average Mary is saying and watch, instead, what the average
Joe is doing, then their practical wisdom betrays any
"apparent" ignorance. The whole time I was in the workplace, I
observed how one could never guess another's denomination or
how they voted in a closed voting booth based on how well they
performed their job and how lovingly they interacted with
their co-workers. Their political leanings and religious
affiliations just was not a good indicator or predictor of how
loving and wise and competent or NOT they were. People, on
average, do a VERY poor job of answering or providing
apologetics for political and religious beliefs, in my view,
again, because a bunch of looney elites are putting the wrong
questions to them using the wrong categories and terms. (I
guess I just ranted. Sorry)
1