Give Us This Day Our Daily Dose of Humility

There are different names for the daily dose of humility we all need. Sometimes it’s perspective we should consider. Sometimes it’s thanksgiving, and what a shame we only use that term about once a year! Sometimes it’s judgment. It can be interpretation, a vantage point, a bird’s eye view, conviction, an angle, or perhaps better information. There’s empathy, pity, charity, mercy, understanding, meekness, and nobility. Devotion is a good one.  If we seek to understand the world around us, there are plenty of facts to learn and file away somewhere, and I mean plenty. Real facts increase every day, and these days there are also plenty of facts that just aren’t true, and they like to keep company with the verified facts we have saved.  Sorting one from the other is a full-time occupation. This sorting is a duty we all have. We must consider all the information and decide what we will believe. This is true of what we hear, what we read, and what we collect with our senses. 

Desire to learn and to improve our knowledge should lead to greater humility

We’re allowed to have our specialties, but the more we know about one or two of those, the more we realize that any knowledge is far from perfect. Totally inadequate often describes things better, if truth be told. It’s been said that we only use about ten percent of our brain capacity. I can believe that. With some people I’d bet it’s not nearly that much. But let’s say we use ten percent on average. If we pack lots of stuff in there every day, there isn’t much danger of overloading the little grey cells. There’s probably some kind of klaxon that goes off when we reach the brain’s red line. I haven’t heard one of those lately, and I don’t know anyone who has. Just keep stuffing things up there until you hear the alarm. So the desire to learn and to improve our knowledge should lead to greater humility. Better information brings us better perspective and, with luck, greater understanding. There are other facts, like scientific facts. But beware, actual scientific facts can be measured and verified. Facts inform us and give us knowledge and perspective. Real scientists love to talk about facts and to have other people challenge their meaning. Facts don’t tell us what we ought to do, they tell us what is. The less facts are verifiable, the less value they have. Facts are not scientific because a “scientist” says they are. After COVID, we know that when people use facts or “science” as a club or a goad, they’re not being scientists, they’re being Progressives. When we encounter anyone who argues that “the science is settled,” or “scientists agree,” then what they’re telling us is that they want you to obey, not to think or start a discussion. Anyone who doesn’t want to discuss what constitutes facts, who won’t present theirs, or who won’t consider contradictory data isn’t a scientist, he’s a Progressive who wants you to think his way is unassailable. He wants you to obey. The worst examples of this come when anyone dares to present a different perspective. “Here are eight studies that show masks don’t stop virus-sized particles,” you might say. When the response is “the science is settled, and we must wear masks for the public good,” then you know you’re being shown the club. The use of the club comes when we’re told that if we don’t shut up and wear the mask we’ll be removed from the flight or denied food or turned over to the authorities. That’s not the use of reason. It’s the use of force. 

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Have you heard of the “social sciences?” That’s right. They aren’t sciences

Thus the curious term “political science” occasionally appears. I’ve worked in that world, and, believe me, there isn’t anything scientific about it. It’s about as scientific as making sausage or running a manure spreader. The same goes for the made up term “cliometrics.” That’s what certain especially arrogant historians call the use of data to “prove” certain concepts in history. It’s another form of the club. Challenge the conclusions of a cliometrician by using common sense, and you’ll find yourself dismissed to dwell among the rubes and the hayseeds. Don’t get me wrong. Data can be used to illustrate concepts, but not to “prove” them. Settlers could gain title to 160 acres of land in the West as a result of the Homestead Act of 1862. That figure tells you what settlers could get, not whether it was a good idea.  Have you heard of the “social sciences?” That’s right. They aren’t sciences, either. Curiously, there were no “social sciences” before the Progressive Era. That’s interesting. There were wags who called political economy, what we now call economics, the “dismal science.” But the term didn’t endow people like Malthus and Marx with anything other than inferiority complexes. Malthus’ problem was poor interpretation of bad data, same as Karl. It’s too bad Malthus didn’t come along in the Progressive Era or call himself a scientist. There’d be statues of him everywhere, just like that other lost soul. The humility we all need can come from others or from within ourselves. We can offer it and share it, but it can’t be forced. We must be able to listen to and also hear others, but it isn’t a one-way street. An exchange means that both sides get to be heard. When we encounter someone who will not hear or consider, but only dismisses, then you’ve entered another’s tribal territory. Group membership, not thinking, is the only thing that counts over there. Tribalism is a sign of cultural decay.

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It seems that humility is always in short supply

Sometimes the best retained lessons come with a considerable degree of pain. Everybody has a lengthy list of those. There isn’t enough space in this column for even a good start on that list, and I’m sure many of you share the sensation I can still feel right now. I consider myself lucky to have survived some of those. Ouch. On very rare occasions, great lessons come without any pain at all. One winter day as I was driving a delivery truck after school I topped a small hill then dropped into a dip in the road and completely lost control. I spun 180 degrees, then skidded backwards across the oncoming lane onto a snowy slope toward a row of trees. When I came to a stop the back bumper was inches from a tree. There had been no vehicles in the oncoming lane. The ditch was not deep. In the silence I took a deep breath. Passing cars slowed to look my way. There was no damage, even to the grass. I started the truck, then drove down the gentle slope and back onto the street going the opposite way. That was a pain-free lesson. For years I never told a soul about what happened, but since that day many years ago I have never topped a hill in slippery conditions at excess speed. I notice that the list of pain-free lessons is rather short, especially in comparison to the other kind. It seems that humility is always in short supply, at least where I live, and wow, do I need more of it. On the other hand, I seem to meet plenty of people who could use some of it, too. Why don’t they ever seem to be looking for it? Their lessons must have left a mark or two in inconvenient places. Sometimes I hear someone say “I learned something today!” That means it was a good day, especially if there are no bandages showing. So give us this day our daily dose of humility, but just this once, if it isn’t too painful, I promise I will still pay attention and learn something.