A nation of Know Nothings?

Long day ahead, first of two Thursdays when I get to stay at school for my block of classes in the MALA (Master of Liberal Arts) tag-team course on Knowledge, 6-9 pm. My job is to represent philosophers' contribution to the subject. What do we know? Should it bother us to know how much we don't know? Etc.

One thing I know for sure: Younger Daughter was thrilled yesterday afternoon to trade in her beloved but miles-weary 2014 Buick Encore, a.k.a. Steve, for a 2023 Nissan Frontier pickup she's dubbed Frankie. 

And I know she deserves every happiness.

I also know that with her new vehicle and her looming new career, she's showing the kind of courage Elizabeth Zott urged in Lessons in Chemistry (a truck-warming copy of which I was happy to give her as we awaited the e-signing and paperwork). "Courage is the root of change…"

That's the first thing I'll say about knowledge tonight. If we know anything, we know it takes courage to change and wisdom to know when to stay the course.

That could also be my segue to talk about the Know Nothing-ism I think characterizes the rise of authoritarian bluster in our national politics. But I should probably steer clear and stick to the relatively-safe space of Socrates, Pyrrho, Montaigne, Descartes et al.

If I could muster the courage, though...

The Biden administration has "passed a series of laws that rivaled President Lyndon Baines Johnson's Great Society of the 1960s…" *

Their opponent is a thug who promises to end democracy as we've known it.

Seems like a no-brainer. But it seems we've become a nation of Know Nothings.

So we'll see.

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*HCR continues:

The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan rebuilt the economy after the worst of the coronavirus pandemic; the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act) is rebuilding the nation's roads and bridges; the $280 billion Chips and Science Act invests in semiconductor manufacture and scientific research; the $739 billion Inflation Reduction Act enables the government to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies and invests in programs to combat climate change. Projects funded by these measures are so popular that Republicans who voted against them are trying to claim credit. 

Biden, Harris, and the Democrats have diversified the government service, defended abortion rights, reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, relieved debt by enforcing the terms of student loans, passed a gun safety law, and reinforced NATO.

They set out to overturn supply-side economics, restoring the system on which the nation had been based between 1933 and 1981, in which the government regulated business, maintained a basic social safety net, promoted infrastructure, and protected civil rights. The result was the strongest economic recovery from the pandemic of any country in the world…"

And yet, droves of voters say they prefer the guy who vows to be a dictator on Day 1. 

As the old Dominican hurler Joacquin Andujar once said, when asked to name his favorite English word: youneverknow.