The First Step to Wisdom: Differentiating Between Knowing, Thinking, and Believing

There was once a human attribute that was ascribed to certain folks. Most of the time, it was an observable behavior in older citizens. The attribute was known as wisdom. It was demonstrated by those who knew how they knew, then applied that knowledge to the untangling of sticky wickets and other dramatic events.

Without Experience, We Don’t Know Diddly

It could be that we have forgotten the process of knowing how we know over the past few years. To know anything, as in knowing it well enough to explain the thing to another person, requires three events. We have to hear something from an authoritative source. If we hear something from a news feed or from a YouTuber that we follow fairly regularly, we tend to think that thing is true. But we will most likely ignore the idea unless someone else we know and trust says that they also think the thing is sexy or some such. Then we might believe it to be true, but until we actually experience the thing we really do not know diddly about the thing. We may think we know and we may believe we know about the thing, but without experience, we cannot claim to know how we know.

Wisdom supposedly comes about through making enough mistakes that you finally decide to finish up with the mistake and get on with living life, but without the same old mistake. Moving from mistake to life without the mistake will bring about wisdom apparently. I’m not all that sure about the wisdom thing, but I am sure about the knowledge thing. It’s as though our brain just does not compute knowledge without a source, a confirmation that the source is trustworthy and then the experience. Although, the order of occurrence does seem to be optional.

Wisdom and Ignorance Exist Everywhere

It may be that knowledge and wisdom are related. If it is, then knowledge has many forms because wisdom exists from the highest to the lowest rungs in society. But then so does stupidity and ignorance. It can be difficult to sort out which is which. They often appear as if they’re exactly the same. A tool to examine behaviors of folks to sort between wisdom and ignorance is to consider what someone used to do. That will probably give clues as to what program set they employ in their thinking.

A Generational Example of a Believer

Let me see if I can explain what I mean by that. The most well known example I can think of is the one and only star of the Apprentice, the one time occupier of the highest office in the land, the only man to be impeached two times, the now infamous and indicted producer and director of the largest insurrection of our times, as well as the prestigious Congressional Soap Opera nominated SNAFU of the year — — The Government Shutdown. Music by Randy Rainbow.

This is the man who made large bank on that TV show but then got to thinking that the TV show ain’t work and he needed to sell them re-fridge-arate-tors and them colorTV’s. He’s still trying to produce dramatic episodes to deflect from his actual purpose, which is to triumphantly make a daily announcement in his most demeaning tone of voice “You’re Fired.” Made him sound like the big guy he considers himself to be. The thing of it is, it had to look like that was actually true for him. He certainly seems to believe it’s true that he actually fired people and as far as he’s concerned, he could well have reason to think he’s that character, not the guy the world sees.

The Congressional Community Theater Players

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the same fellow is orchestrating dramatic episodes for bit players to play out in the Congress. The Congressional players get to put on community theater plays authored by the Big Guy himself. Shades of Neil Young and “Brother Donny’s Traveling Salvation Show” taking place tonight on the floor of the US Congress. It looked like it would be a lot of fun on the posters, but it turns out to be a jumbled slide show of grainy black and white stills projected on a white brick wall somewhere in seedy downtown Washington.

You Call That a Horror Show?

Turns out it’s just Mr. Guy writing bad scripts for his not-ready-for-prime-time players who have yet to grasp the subtleties of lying convincingly. The plot just is not sustainable. It is not believable even as a cartoon. But if Mr.’s behaviors are viewed in the light of a successful television star with high ratings, his cocky righteousness is almost understandable. The guy really knows how to set up a scene. But that does not mean that he knows how to be President. He apparently lacks the wisdom required for the job.

Belief Is Not a Substitute for Experience

During his tenure in the White House, he demonstrated his lack of knowledge and wisdom in decision after decision. From banning Muslims, to throwing paper towels to hurricane survivors, to announcing that masks were not necessary for him because they smudged his make-up. To deciding to contest the election both before and after it had been decided, to watching January 6th from the safety of the White House. He obviously believed something that he did not know in each of these instances and lacked the wisdom to question how he knew what he believed he knew. What appears to be lacking in the knowledge he believed he had in these instances, is experience.

He has never experienced religious persecution or the responsibility for thousands of lives lost to disease or consequences for his actions or what it costs to abandon people doing his bidding. That does not make him a bad person, it merely indicates that he’s a believer as opposed to an adherent of knowledge. He lacked the knowledge to even have people around him that could demonstrate wisdom or knowledge and those who served at his pleasure and possessed wisdom and knowledge were suspect for the certainty they carried in their being. Besides they would not agree that he knew things. They all knew and knew how they knew that he lacked experience.

Thinking, Believing and Knowing

A useful mental exercise is to differentiate between what one thinks, what one believes and what one knows. It can be instructive to examine perceived knowledge in terms of experience. It’s instructive, not proof, that perception is based in reality. It can be thought to be based in reality and it can be believed to be based in reality, but reality perceived with experience is the basis of knowledge.

Some examples of reality which is believed as opposed to known are found in the folks taking part in this comic opera presented by the Congressional Players. The world economic disaster production of Big Guy’s play titled “You Can’t Play Golf in an Orange Jumpsuit.” The play takes place in the present day where D. Jailbait Trump, played by Big Guy, takes the world to the brink of economic collapse for the chance to have a bargaining chip he can use to purchase a get out of jail free card. It is not expected to run for a second season. The bit players do not yet know that their careers are over because they will forever be seen as the shutdown kids.

Experience May Not Be All Warm and Fuzzy

Something that makes experience valuable are mistakes. Maybe the best example of this idea is a guy called Brandon. This is a guy who has years and years of experience. He might have written that song, Good Times, Bad Times. There’s no way he could have accumulated that many years of experience without making nearly as many mistakes as not. What’s even better is that he knows how to use all that experience to accomplish things that others could only talk about due to their lack of experience. Infrastructure week comes to mind. Brandon has experienced the cold stark reality of life, while Big Guy has only ever experienced the fantasy of putting on the Ritz. Big has been protected from cold and stark by a cocoon of believers who thought they could share something of Big’s wealth and live in his perceived reality.

Remember the character in the movie Truman? He had experiences he believed were real even though all his experiences were for his benefit alone. Eventually he was fortunate enough to discover the reality of his experiences. But that was a Hollywood production, right? The big difference between Brandon and Big Guy is that Brandon has learned from his mistakes, and Big Guy has yet to acknowledge his mistakes. Big Guy is still trapped in discovering why his believed reality is not aligned with actual reality. What a tragic life the man is doomed to live.

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