Meta-Mystery and Mega-Stupidity

Whatever we can know of this world is always bisected by mystery. And there can be nothing more mysterious than subjectivity itself, which is the very light that illuminates the world.

But this light cannot be parthenogenetic. Rather, it must have its own sufficient reason, as there is no such thing as an effect without a cause, nor can the effect contain something that isn't in the cause.

For this reason we invented the term "fertile egghead" for those of us who are fertilized -- "overshadowed," so to speak -- by light from above. Others are rendered infertile by the darkness below. These we call eunuchs for the kingdom of man.

These sentiments were provoked by a passage in The Human Wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas, which reduces some of the great man's thoughts into bite-sized aphorisms worthy of Dávila, except without the humor and the sting.

For the usual mysterious reasons, I was guided toward the book this morning. Let's try to find out why. In the introduction, Pieper says that,

In the opinion of Thomas, not only does mystery put a limit to the penetrability of reality, but ordo itself is interwoven and crossed by mystery.

And not just theological mystery. Then again, perhaps lesser forms of mystery are actually rooted in this deeper metaphysical principle: in the meta-mystery. I'm gonna go with that, because I like to be cosmically consistent. I don't like loose ends, especially with regard to something so fundamental.

Note, for example, how much mischief and mayhem could be avoided if only our ideological eunuchs for the kingdom of Marx could abide by this principle! No one would be rioting in order to force their ideological dreamworlds on the restavus, that's for sure.

When Hayek's knowledge problem is ignored by the left (and this ignorance defines the left), it forms the basis of their chronic stupidity problem. Which would be fine if it only affected them. But unfortunately, their stupidity affects all of us, especially when allied with state power. Good intentions + the unlimited coercive power of the state is by far the most successful recipe for hell on earth. Or just say socialism.

This same subject is discussed from various angles in Sowell's foundational Knowledge & Decisions. The book is so dense with principles and rich with their implications that it's impossible to summarize. Here's the first paragraph:

Ideas are everywhere but knowledge is rare. Even a so-called "knowledgeable" person usually has solid knowledge only within some special area, representing a tiny fraction of the whole spectrum of human concerns. Humorist Will Rogers said, "Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects."

Those of you who have attended college know better than anyone that "Ideas are everywhere but knowledge is rare." And if you haven't yet figured that out, it is in all likelihood because the indoctrination was a complete success: only the patient died.

There's a paradox -- or twist -- at play here, because the evolution of civilization correlates with increased ignorance. For example, you don't have to go too far back in history to a time when almost everyone had to know how to farm or hunt. Now almost no one does, and yet, there is more food than ever.

Likewise, my ignorance of computer technology is essentially total, and yet, here I am. It reminds me of Bloomberg's comment a few months back about farming: "I can teach anyone how to be a farmer 1 dig a hole 2 put a seed in 3 put dirt on top 4 add water 5 up comes the corn."

Notice the deeper pattern: total ignorance arrogantly masquerading as total mastery. It's analogous to me teaching a writing class: "1 plug in the computer 2 turn it on 3 log on to the internet 4 start typing 5 out comes the post."

A few posts back we were goofing on Native Americans who seem to think it possible to inhabit the microcosmos of an actual Native American. The problem is, they are at once too intelligent -- they know too much -- and too ignorant -- they know too little. Regarding the latter, how many of them would know how to survive in the wild under paleolithic conditions? How many would want to?

Sowell asks,

What then is the intellectual advantage of civilization over primitive savagery? It is not necessarily that each civilized man has more knowledge but that he requires far less. A primitive savage must be able to produce a wide variety of goods and services for himself...

Conversely, I don't know how to make a moccasin, locate roots & berries that won't make me sick, or hunt for animals with weapons I don't know how to make. In a pinch I could probably scalp someone -- the right someone -- but that's about it.

You've probably heard the old cliche about how modern man knows more and more about less and less, to the point of knowing everything about nothing. But the converse is equally true: with the advance of civilization we know less and less about more and more, to the point that we know nothing about nearly everything.

This blog teaches that the two punchlines are but sides of a single metacosmic gag, and tries to integrate and synthesize the Everything and Nothing, Knowledge and Ignorance, Mystery and Mister O.

How does this relate to Aquinas? We don't know, but we're about to find out. I hope.

Try this on for size:

the boundary between order and mystery passes through this world itself; the effort of human thought, says Thomas, has not been able to track down the essence of a single gnat.

Not only is this true, it will always be true: whatever we know will always be surrounded -- or bisected -- by what we don't know. This ignorance is a precondition of knowledge. If everything were already lit up, we could never see the light.

The intellectual light dwelling in us is nothing else than a kind of participated image of the uncreated light...

Correct. See paragraph 2 above. And the Light of intellection contains the principle of freedom within itself: "Wherever there is intellectual knowledge, there is also free will."

Any truth partakes of All Truth, because light comes from Light. That's my bottom line. How?

The highest perfection of human life consists of the mind of man being open to God.

From the one first truth there result many truths in the human mind, just as the one human face produces many images in a broken mirror.

[T]he light of our intellect, which is either natural or a gift of grace, is nothing other than an imprint of the first truth.

[S]o also the interior light of the mind is the principle cause of knowledge.

Every rational being knows God implicitly in every act of knowledge.... nothing is knowable except through its likeness to the first truth.

The natural desire for knowledge cannot be satisfied in us until we know the first cause.... Hence last end of the creature endowed with a spiritual intellect is to see God in his essence.

So,

The last end is the first principle of being...

Now, having said all this,

This is the final human knowledge of God: to know that we do not know God.

And to come full circle back to the first paragraph above, knowledge from top to bottom is always bisected by mystery. For

Whatever is comprehended by a finite being is itself finite.