Faux Fu

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Hey, Let's Keep Men Stupid!

Little Carla, bless her heart, makes sure that I'm dressed stylishly. If it was up to me, I'd be wearing my 'Space Modulator,' t-shirt, and a pair of jeans every day. A while back, on one of her trips to the Big Apple, she scored a couple of beautiful shirts that have upgraded my profile. Yesterday, I discovered that the flowery, maroon one, (could it be considered 'foppish?') had some creative stitching at the bottom. I was pleased to find the following words spelled out in (that word again) stylish cursive: Knowledge, Wisdom, Truth.

Wow! That made my day! I thought, 'That's my credo!' Suddenly, I felt like a Secret Citizen Super-Hero. (Forgive me, dear reader - you must understand - it was a slow news day!). So I went to my dictionary for some clarity.

1. Knowledge - the state or fact of knowing.
2. Wisdom - understanding of what is true, right or lasting.
3. Truth - conformity to knowledge, fact or actuality.

I'm certainly dedicated to seeking these things. I do think we are subjects, in a universe of objects, and like Albert Einstein and Kurt Godel (I'm only putting myself in a club with these two because of the book I'm reading at the moment: Incompleteness, The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel) that we can, or at least we must try, to discover answers to the riddle that the universe continually presents to us.

Both Einstein and Godel thought that the universe was intelligible. That it could be understood, that there were ways (physics, mathematics) to objectively measure and draw conclusions. Both of these guys were revered and celebrated and also, misunderstood and co-opted to the PostModern view (which they did not hold) that everything was subjective (relative) and that logic and reason would fail us.

Instead, they seemed to think that logic and reason could lead to strange and unreasonable answers, but that we could understand how the universe works. So I'm chasing another rabbit (I know nothing of physics or mathematics, but I love mulling over ideas), down another rabbit hole. That's how I keep my brain humming. Godel thought that there was a reason to everything in the universe, that the universe might appear to be absurd, it might contain, chaos, incompleteness and paradox, but that these things were false appearances that in fact, adhered to a secret logic yet to be discovered. Godel also became paranoid towards the end of his life, thinking that there was a vast conspiracy afoot for the last few centuries to keep man stupid. Hmmmm. Sounds plausible to me.

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