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Erudition

In the tertulias of times past, there was always a scholar who knew everything. He remembered names, faces, dates, and data with absolute precision thanks to his privileged memory which was nourished by voluminous, diverse, and at times, useless reading. Any argument would ultimately appeal to him to act as the Court of Appeals.

Today the prestige of this group of wise men, earned at the cost of burning up their eyelashes by reading tons of books, has disappeared. Erudition no longer means anything.

Today, amid any argument in which all sides insist that they are right, as the argument expands and temperatures rise, perhaps the one who is the dullest member of the group, who has remained silent, discretely taps the keys of his iPhone — and when the discussion reaches a dead-end, he exhibits the final verdict dictated by the screen of his cell phone as if it were the eye of a hawk.

We have before us the truth extracted from the swamp of cyberspace by the tips of one’s fingers. Prestige is in the hands of any fool that can best and most quickly employ his five fingertips to extract the answer from Google.

The invention of the printing press marked the beginning of the Modern Age. The massive publication of books put an end to the argument of authority which had been until then in the hands of the clergy, shysters, and healers, who served as a source of knowledge before the ignorance of common folk.

A similar revolution has produced the digital jungle in which the student can trump the professor, the patient overrule his doctor, the illiterate outsmart the philologist, an idiot counter the scientist, and the accused checkmate the judge.

Culture today is a crazed bar counter that encircles the planet; and global politics is presided over by a stag with a 14 point gold antlers — a Caligula with fingers governed by hatred, ignorance, and stupidity.

5 Comments

  1. Delmar Bolshi February 25, 2017

    It is a snapshot in time you see, brother – a process – it is chaotic – it is, and will later be seen to have been, revolution…Not a pretty business!

    The Westphalian Order ended with the Bush 43 putsch, and now we see the international relationships re-structuring in a new way… The Westphalian Order?

    Yes, 1648. It’s been awhile…and will take awhile to settle into the new way of nations – Trump is part of the disorder attending the re-organization, so is the war…

    Check back in 100 years and look at the history then, and you will see.

  2. Jim Updegraff February 27, 2017

    given the acceleration in climate change it may be the human race will not be around 100 years from now.

    • Louis S. Bedrock February 27, 2017

      Jim,

      New York area has seen 40º temperature fluctuations in 24 hours. I’m in Florida on a bicycle vacation and today hit 85º—very warm for February.

      Imagine what upward fluctuations like this would do mid-July!
      People will be dying. Electric power failures will be common. Crops will die too.

      Woe is us. We may not be around in another two years.

      LB

  3. Jim Updegraff February 28, 2017

    LB: good time to take your FL trip. Maybe next year with the rise in the oceans you will be going on your trip in a motor boat.

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