Why do we do ignore traditional wisdom the way we do?

Rich, Arrogant and Stupid

By Bruce Thornton

There’s something every cracker-barrel philosopher know––there’s no free lunch. Eventually the bill will have to be paid, and then we’ll see the wages of forgetting traditional wisdom and thinking that the eternal laws of human nature and behavior have been repealed just for us.

The modern West demonstrates a phenomenon unknown in history––unprecedented wealth, technology, and access to information combined with abject stupidity. Wisdom once known by every village explainer and cracker-barrel crank has been discarded and replaced with phony “sciences” making claims about human nature and behavior that are based on nothing other than false assumptions, political ideology, and wishful thinking. Whether it’s foreign policy, managing the economy, or teaching the young, our leaders institute policies that violate the traditional wisdom accumulated by generations of human experience.

The debacle unfolding in Syria is not a consequence of a failure of complex knowledge known by “experts,” or of mismanagement of abstruse technical diplomatic procedures. It’s a failure to understand human nature as well as illiterates did in the past. Common sense tells us that any negotiation with an adversary depends on a credible threat of serious force.

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