Yes, Dear Reader, not
knowing a subject to a surfeit
can complicate the ordinary stress of communication to a miserable degree. In
fact, lack of knowledge can hobble communication, can reduce communication to
mere arbitrary opinion, and can bring down judgmental reactions upon us all (perhaps
from the very people criticizing us who also, were they to admit it, may not
know their subject all that well either), as can a storehouse of misinformation.
To give Gov. Perry credit, I think he well knew his subject.
The link on brain freeze in my last blog suggests that
Governor Perry had recently revised his education position and had a new one,
creating conflict in his neural network when called upon in the stressful
debate situation to instantly sort for and select the new thinking over the
old. As a result, his brain scrambled.
I think also he then simply became the victim of public
(that is public and my) DEMAND for instant answers. People today crave quick
fixes, easy answers in 25 words or less, and an awful lot of recall, accuracy, fluency
and knowledge ability from others, if not themselves, on ANY topic.
Forget that we all are prone to the proverbial storehouse of
misinformation, forget that we all have the occasional brain freeze. Forget
that we are all too frequently ignorant on some particular or other. Instead, note our inclination, note the
response to which we are most prone. Put simply, it is to ridicule and scoff at
the object of our scorn—something Jay Leno has proved time and again in his
street interviews.
And you know what is the remedy for such predicaments?
Knowing one’s subject to a surfeit!
To be continued . . .
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