Wise After the Event

This common phrase is what the literati would call an oxymoron - a phrase which contradicts itself.

 The concept of wisdom is about making decisions which will improve  our future. Critical commentary on past decisions does not in any way qualify as wisdom.

Notwithstanding this self evident proposition there are whole professions devoted to this futile pursuit and claiming wisdom as their enduring quality.

These include journalists and their allies the critics, auditors and some historians.

Most historians are hard at work trying to unravel and understand the past and present  their findings to inform our decisions about the future. This work is essential. 

There are some however who approach their work with different agendas. They scrutinise the past and select and describe their findings, decrying most and praising their selected few, solely in order to defend and protect their current paymasters and their intellectual  antecedents. The bookshops bulge with history books defending and extolling assorted dogmas political or religious. We may safely disregard their conclusions. Wisdom is elsewhere. 

Beware of -isms

We are surrounded by  -isms. Capitalism, Republicanism, Monarchism, Socialism, Baptism, Catholicism, Nationalism to name but a few of the worst. Each -ism has its -ists and a sorry lot they are. All these -isms start from the notion of  a great idea which if you take it up and follow it will solve many or perhaps even all of life's problems. Not so, not so! Life is not that simple. There is no single grand prescription. Life is complex and difficult. We need to consider each issue as it arises and look to make the best decisions we can by using experience guided by experiment where possible, by pursuing our collective objectives and ambitions and by the power of reason. We each need to do this as individuals and when we join with others on  bigger issues. Follow individuals with a similar approach, elect them, advise them and get them to govern making big decisions on the same basis. Out with all the -isms. Or perhaps keep one - for what I have described is something close to Pragmatism!

Belief: Part 1

We hear all the time about belief, beliefs, believers and so on. But what does it mean when we say we believe in something? I can tell you all the things I believe in but what does that tell you anything about me? Are beliefs just that or do they mean something? My beliefs are of value to you only if they affect what I do. The same is true for everyone. When we deal with one another we need some sense of how the other person will react to assorted situations. Beliefs which mean something will help determine future behaviour and if stated publicly will help others to respond. Beliefs which do not affect future actions and behaviours are in essence meaningless. A person can bang on forever about what they believe but if it has no effect on their actions it is of no value. How would we recognise a real meaningful belief?
Try this: I believe that the principles of aerodynamics are true and useful. How do you know? I am willing to sit in an aircraft at the end of the runway and go hurtling down to certain death if my belief is false! That is a genuine belief.
Try it out. What do you think you believe? Would you willingly put yourself in a position of possible real harm if it turned out that your belief was false?
Most practical beliefs will pass the test. Most beliefs that involve supernatural elements will fail. People regularly tell us they believe in this and that supernatural phenomenon but these beliefs are for all practical purposes useless. They do not help us understand and thus predict how that person will act in a given situation.

Experts

We need them. We want things that work. We buy cars, phones, computers cookers and all manner of devices which work. They do so not by accident but because they are made by people who know what is what. Experts. We would not have it any other way.
So why do we get so upset about expertise in other areas of our lives? In social matters experts get a bad press and every journalist or politician seems to know better the answer to every problem we encounter. They don't of course and so we muddle on doing things badly and making painfully slow progress. It can be different. We can find people who do know what is what and we can employ such people to design and construct mechanisms for dealing with the myriad of problems we face. Yes they will be experts just like the people who designed and built our devices and no, we must not disregard and denounce them for that very expertise. There are better ways of doing things and we can take much of what we need out of the political arena and make it work easily and uncontroversially. Let us all listen to our own voice, encourage others, seek out experts in all sorts of issues, set them the task and heed their advice. We will be rewarded. It is currently broke and we do need to fix it!

The Firewall

When a computer is connected to the Internet it can receive all manner of information. Much of this is useful, much is desired and sadly much is harmful both to the computer and the user! To help out with this situation most computers will have a firewall, a set of arrangements to prevent undesired or harmful material reaching the computer and its user. You and I also, whether we use computers or not, are also constantly exposed to masses of information much of which is harmful and we need a personal type of firewall to protect us.

How does a firewall work? I am no expert but there are a couple of pointers. Firstly the computer firewall will block everything from anyone it has been told to block. You and I should do likewise. If you have had a bad experience of any particular source, be it a person or an organisation then blank it out. Ignore it in future. Don't go near it or them. Pay no attention.

Another approach computer firewalls use is to only allow into the computer information that has been requested by the user. Good plan for life. Pay no heed to folks offering you info you did not ask for! This cuts down dramatically the daily load. You can safely ignore all advertising, junk mail, fliers etc you encounter on the streets, in the media or on the Internet. Any approaches from commercial organisations, politicians, religionists or senders of spam you can blank out and your life will be richer and calmer as a result. If however you approach any of these groups or individuals seeking information or advice all well and good.

Remember this - most unasked for approaches make promises to you. Most promises will not be fulfilled. Expecting such is to be disappointed. How much disappointment can we handle? There is a limit. As said before -trust yourself, your family and your friends. You know them well, you know how to work with them, you can adjust to their individual personalities. But mostly think calmly and trust yourself

First Point - No certainty.

The first wise observation to make is that in the future nothing is certain. Anyone who offers us certainty in the future must be approached with caution. That politician's promise, that product's wonderous qualities, or that journalist's prediction should all be looked at carefully. It is unlikely that they all will be true. And of course you know that to be true. We all know that certainty is not to be had but at times we let our emotions govern our reason, accept the story being told and not infrequently see it fail to come true and suffer disappointment. The more stories we are told giving hope the more that fail to be realised the more disappoinmtent we feel. What does that do to a person? Someone once said that the only two certainties in life are Death and Taxes. That catches the two most important truths about us. We are all mortal beings for whom life is precious but who know that we will die and we are all social creatures who cannot survive alone and who pay taxes as a means of getting the help we need at times from strangers. There are those who preach against death as final and others who preach against taxes as evil. They are both wrong. As you well know! Be confident in your gut feelings.

The Pitch

Wisdom is the ability to make good decisions for the future despite a lack of adequate information. That will be the task most of the time. If we have all the information (which is unusual) and make bad decisions that is not unwise - that is stupid!

Mostly we don't have enough information to decide exactly what is best and must do the best we can. I will try to show how that might best be done using lots of examples.

My most important advice is this - listen carefully to your own thoughts about a situation. We are all bombarded by other people giving us advice. Most of those folks want something in return - money, votes, whatever and so there advice is to be considered very carefully. I am not of course suggesting that we should ignore expert factual information. There are situations we need to act on where we don't have all the information we need and experts do exist and are to be heeded. Notwithstanding their sometimes spectacular failures they do get it right more often than not. (We fly in aircraft and trust with our lives the folks who design, build maintain and fly these marvellous machines. They are experts and they are right many times more often than they are wrong)

I am more concerned that we do not listen too much to the wider noise from advertising, politics, journalism, media, religion or whatever, all of whom try to tell us what to do for their own ends. By and large their views should be put carefully in their place. You and I know far more about our own situation than any of these folks and I would give as my biggest and most important advice that you listen carefully to yourself and as far as possible ignore these distracting voices. You are much more capable than these folks would wish you to believe. I wish to encourage you to have more self confidence in your own inner strength and knowledge. Go to genuine experts for the facts but, as they will seldom be enough, make up your own mind thereafter. You have the ability. Stay calm, sit quietly, think about what you have experienced and what you know and make up your mind. You will be right more often than you will be wrong. Your life will be the better for it. I will develop this theme over time and show how it can work.