Are You Now or Have You Ever Been a Knower?!

I don’t know the answer to that. However, supposing you sincerely ask the question of yourself, then you probably are a knower. 

Put conversely, non-knowers don’t reflect upon what they know, i.e., whether it is actually The Case; rather, it’s a one-and-done thingy, with no looping back to examine and verify the putative knowledge. 

For example, my dog never fails to go nuts at the very sound of the mailman, never checking to determine if he really intends to break into the house, steal our treats, and kill us all. If she could do that, she’d be rather embarrassed. But like Keith Olbermann, she is incapable of shame or self-awareness. 

That’s not quite correct, for the dog is truly incapable, whereas human beings -- in particular, those with Narcissistic Personality Disorder -- may suffer from a kind of neuro-dysregulation such that the self cannot tolerate shame, so it is bypassed. But the absence of shame only facilitates more things to be ashamed of, which is why the shameless tantrums worsen over time.   

Back to the subject at hand: how much of our own knowledge is of the go-nuts-at-the-mailman or Olbermannesque Trump-derangement variety? I suppose it depends upon how immature or progressive you are. I’m old enough to remember when the left had its tiresome talking points instead of the excited barking points.  

Correlation doesn't imply causation. Despite the many surveys that reveal leftism to be associated with depression, anxiety, sexual confusion, substance abuse, et al, the question is always whether progressivism is a cause or consequence of mental illness. 

However, I suspect existential issues enter into the equation as well, being that we’ve known for a long time that the unexamined life isn’t worth living.

Problem is, the examined life may not feel worth living if examined too closely. Let’s say you’re Hunter Biden. Can you even imagine having to examine that? I’d rather examine the underside of an outhouse.

Still, it is our duty always and everywhere to examine the facts, for it is truly right and just. We all carry our own personal outhouse from which no one is exempt. Which is why

We can never count on a man who does not look upon himself with the gaze of an entomologist.

And why

Nobody will ever induce me to absolve human nature, because I know myself.

But would you like to corrupt an individual? Here in California, our failing schools do so by teaching Self-Esteem, Gay Pride, Black Lives Matter, Girl Power, etc. Never mind that there is no actual examination of the self, of homosexuality, of female nature, or of why any life should matter. Just know that 

In order to corrupt the individual it is enough to teach him to call his personal desires rights and the rights of others abuses.

So, the desire of some pervert to invade the girl’s locker room trumps a girl’s right to not be molested by some pervert pretending to be a girl. 

Nothing makes more evident the reality of sin than the stench of the souls that deny its existence.

But you knew that. You’re a knower. But wait. That sounds a bit self-aggrandizing. Yes and no, for

An extreme ambition protects us from conceit.

In other words, image of God at one end, fallen at the other, and our present existence always somewhere in between. Hence the old gag that "the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.”

As it so happens, this question of knowers and knowledge is at the heart of Insight -- both the book and the thing. I mean, if we can’t truly know anything with objectivity and certitude, then we’re done here, are we not? 

This is what it means to be “critical” -- another one of those words the left has stolen and redefined to mean its opposite, as in “critical race theory.” Which is to say, Uncritical Racist Ideology.

But this question of the Knower deserves more than mere insultainment, regardless of how fine, so let’s get into some preluminaries. 

Every would-be knower -- yes, even Keith Olbermann -- “has an individual and privileged access to his own knowing activities.” If not, then what we are about to discuss would have as much traction as a great sounding audio system to a deaf man. The presence! The soundstage! The warmth! The dimensionality!

What?! Speak louder! 

Okay, to repeat, "HUMAN KNOWING HAS THE UNIQUE ABILITY TO 'RETURN UPON’ ITSELF.” 

In so doing, the knower can “experience the tension that is questioning.” 

The tension that is questioning. I like that. No wonder I’m so tense. Life is (?), and (?) is always reaching out to its own fulfillment, like the hunger we spoke of yesterday. Put abstractly, we could say the tension is something like (?)  <—>  O.

The tension is represented by the middle term (<—>). It

can be a very unsettling, restless desire that will drive a person for hours and hours to find out what is the case…. But then comes the sweet satisfaction of having an insight! The more frustrating and prolonged  the searching, the more joyous the "eureka!"

In the past we have symbolized this moment as (?!), because it is as if the determined questioning triggers a sudden answer that discloses a new field of questions, which we call the eternal circle of WTF?!

To be continued….