Evening star., 1932-03-11
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

credit for being shrewd enough to see
that they do not know anything when
! they do not!
as alI-wise is one of the basic reasons
at the bottom of this strange malady
| mot that one does not know. let II De
kept in mind. but that he will not keep
his fool mouth shut when he does not).
The pretension to universal wisdom
! is made by many men and women VINO
ought to know better. If you ask them
such a simple question as, rs spider
an insect or an animal?" they will i'm
mediately pop out with insect, rather
than admit that they had never mace
any study of the matter ana really Hao
not thought about it, but rather helo the
personal opinion that sploer must oe
| an insect. since it looked exactly ike
one to the eve untutored in such things.
Nine out of 10 human beings can De
caught easily on such trick questions,
simply because they will refuse TO ad-
init to another that they are in doubt
about anything, or that there Is any
branch of human knowledge In whlcn
they are not well yerSed.
1t will be said that few human peings
honestly think they are well Versed IN
all human knowledge. That Is eXactly
the point! They know they are not
out they are perfectly willing that others
shall think they are, If by any blud
they can convey that impression. :.
Our educational systems are at iault.
They have added to the original con-
ceit of man by attempting to give the
student a smattering of all things, 20
that his subsequent chattering Is ABOUT
all things.
little of everything Goes not mean that
he knows ANYTHING at all about any
thing
Quite often, probably more often than
not. the average human being Is woe
fully ignorant So much Of our "educa-
tion" is memory work, and the memo
ries Of human beings are so notorlously
short that there is little wonder that
most men and women 10 years out OF
school could not pass a decent examl-
nation to save their lives. The thing
has been tried, with luGicrous effects.
y
Another basic reason why people in
sist on talking about matters concern
ing which they know little, If anything,
lies in the strange fear Of humanity
to say 'fI do not know"
Conversation calls upon them to say
something. and, rather than say moth
ing. or say II do not know" they say
something foolish.
The fear of saying "I do not know"
is as old as the human race. 1t Is one
Of the reasons why the world is no
further ahead than 1t is. If, since the
beginning Of history, men had been
honest enough to declare their ignor-
ance openly. they might have made at
tempts to learn more than they did, and
out of this search might have come
better race. Might have, nobody
knows
But because few human beings have
had the courage to declare frankly
Il do not know" the world still suffers
the absurd spectacle of most human
beings making tacit pretensions to all
knowledge.
Any one can prove this to himself
almost anywhere by asking almost
any one some absurd question. such as
How many 't's' are there in the name
OF the great French poet Taubett?"
There Is no great French poet Tau
bett, of course, but SO out of 100 people
not wishing to admit that they never
heard Of him, will reply that they
think 1t has one t. at the beginning
and two at the end" or some such
foolishness.
If one knows nothing about steam
engineering. it Is only common honesty
to express no opinions about steam en-
gineering problems.
Yet how many steam engineers there
are in the world, apparently!