Everyone seems to be under the false notion that we are obligated to know everything. Most people want to prove they know more than the next and will engage in hours of senseless argument to prove it. "Why?" you may ask, I'll allow it. I think it is like some primal badge of honor to know more than the next person. And yet, what exactly does this knowledge offer?
Pretty much nothing at all. Throughout history such debates have often been settled with brass swords or lead bullets. Proving that the most powerful knowledge is where the weapons are and how to use them. This is why I rarely claim to know anything or act upon that knowledge. The Vatican used to have people burned at the stake for heresy such as claiming the Earth revolves around the sun. Any wise man worth his weight in sacrament wafers can see with his own eyes the Sun revolving around the Earth. To this day it is a sin to wear a condom. That is one of the few times I buck the system and wear one constantly.
What do we really know? According to Gödel, no logical system can accurately answer every question that can be written correctly within the rules of the system. According to Tarski, "Truth in the standard model of any sufficiently sophisticated formal system cannot be defined within the system." This simply means that all logical systems are incomplete and truth is undefined. Well, what do you know!
Socrates was once proclaimed the wisest man on Earth. He decided to disprove this by finding one person who knew more than he did. He couldn't find one. As a matter of fact what he found was most people didn't know ANYTHING! So he began claiming he did not know anything. All he had to do was find one person who knew one thing. Then he could disprove the prophecy and be a nobody. Yet, even this proved impossible. He couldn't find anybody who knew anything. I seem to sympathize greatly with this complaint. Eventually, Plato hinted that wisdom was not knowledge but understanding. Socrates was wise because he did not claim any false knowledge.
Which makes me celebrate even today! YAAY! Because I don't know shit and so at least I can claim to be wise from knowing I don't know shit. How is this beneficial? When anybody asks me to do anything I simply say, "I don't know." When they ask me anything, "I don't know." With this I have become the last guy anyone asks for favors. Nobody asks me to clean this, move that, build this, paint that. I am blissfully excused from having to do anything that requires knowledge. Maybe I am dumb as toast, but I feel I have the wisdom of maybe Solomon's cousin Morty or something. I know how to not get asked to do shit! In my mind there is no greater knowledge. But don't tell anyone I know even that! I have an image to keep!
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