Some nice person said that my correct opinions were so important that they hated to see me make a fool of myself by going into areas where I am ignorant.
They said I was underming my “authority.”
A lot of people spend their whole lives building up their “authority” on a certain subject. If anyone has another opinion on that subject, they say, “Who do you think you are?”
My reply is, “I am Bob Whitaker and I am MUCH smarter than you are.”
Then the battle begins.
Some people say I am conceited. They don’t know the half of it.
I do not like anybody talking about “undermining my authority” because I don’t NEED any authority. I will beat you on facts and I will beat you on logic, or I will lose out on facts and logic.
I am smart enough to win and courageous enough to lose.
I DESPISE the very smell of “authority.” If you have a statistical record of curing disease, you are a doctor. If you don’t, every degree and Nobel Prize in the world doesn’t mean a damned thing to me.
One question people ask when they are talking about conceit is:
“You think you’re smarter than anybody else, don’t you?”
Yes, I do.
“You think you’re right and everybody else is wrong, don’t you?”
Yes I do.
“You think the world is just black or white, right or wrong, don’t you?”
Exactly. You’ve read my mind.
And to all the other questions you might ask, the answer is yes.
I believe in the truth, not in Truth. There are a million Truths. There is only one truth.
These Truths that everybody capitalizes are Revelations declared by every schizophremic and sociopath who founds a sect. But in the real world, in the world of life, death, joy and misery, there are two kinds of statements:
1) Those that are right and,
2) Those that are wrong.
And yes, I think I am right and the others are wrong.
#1 by Don on 11/27/2004 - 2:02 pm
Someone once said, when describing little men who snipe at and carp about Great Men, “Greatness they do not understand, not having inward experience of it.”
I understand conceit.
#2 by H.S. on 11/27/2004 - 2:50 pm
Unless, of course, you’re wrong – which again, you will be the judge of that determination.
All sounds like everyone else I know, they just don’t write it out.
Each human has to make decisions on such a small set of facts and feelings they have to work with. Facts and truths can be slippery things to work with. They are each tied to their own specific context and parameters. We each don’t know very many facts from our own determination. We choose to take for granted the facts presented to us by people whose track record we trust (faith), or on the reputation of people who refer us to one with the track record (faith).
We adjust our thinking constantly – we learn new things about what has always existed every day.
Of course we think we’re right – and even when we know we’re not, we’ll *do* what we want anyway – because the price of the outcome is acceptable to us.
#3 by Mike on 11/27/2004 - 2:59 pm
It seems that it is the worship of these “authorities” that has led us to the matrix-like, alice in wonderland world we live in, at least concerning the “social sciences”. I would think that even if you only get it right half of the time, you’re still better off to make determinations on your own rather than entrust them to the “authority”.
Such trust leds to emperors running around naked.
#4 by Elizabeth on 11/27/2004 - 3:55 pm
I’m in grad school, working towards a Master’s degree in History. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m working towards becoming an “authority.”
I’m doing this for a very good reason: I need to be economically independent;nothing else I’ve tried has gotten me there;no one has even asked me to marry him, and I’m good at doing research and writing papers.
#5 by Richard L. Hardison on 11/27/2004 - 6:07 pm
Bob, there is a real difference between conceit and confidence. You detail one of the basic differences when you say, “I am smart enough to win and courageous enough to lose.” The conceited individual doesn’t have the courage, or the grace, to be wrong. You’ve admitted several times in this blog that you have been wrong about something. That takes guts and is one of the marks of a man of quality. Men of quality are not conceited.
As to the rest, I liked the statement of “Indiana Jones” in “Raiders of the Lost Arc” when he was addressing his class in Archeology, “in here we deal with facts, not ‘truth.’ If you want truth the Philosophy class is down the hall.” Of course “facts” are THE truth. Most of the “truths” of philosophy is just the mental meanderings of someone who couldn’t do much else.
#6 by LW on 11/27/2004 - 7:40 pm
Elizabeth,
Are you implying that your talents at writing papers and doing research are blockbuster traits for a prospective mate? I’m not sniping; you can write me a paper anytime.