This originally appeared on my political blog at https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2021/05/on-petty-resistance.html.
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Years ago, a former colleague (he has long since retired now) tried to mansplain to me why his approach to doing something - a minor computer task, for which his approach took twice as many keystrokes and had no stability, accuracy or other advantages - was "better" than my approach.
When I challenged him - particularly on the number of keystrokes (which is an important matter when people are as overloaded as we are) - he became completely FBU, and fell back on inanities along the line of "no, yours isn't better", and - on his preferred technique - "it's just better".
What he either didn't want to say or - worse, given the saying about not trying to teach fools who don't know they're fools [Note 1] - didn't know, was that he had heard his method from someone he trusted, and he was so rigid, inflexible, and closed (possible insecure or threatened at learning from someone like me?) that he couldn't countenance that, in this minor matter, he could be wrong, or that there could be a better way, and that agreeing to that would not make him a lesser person, necessarily threaten or lessen his source (who may simply have not known of the alternative), and would not have caused the sky to have fallen.
People have a tendency to get fixated on things - some minor, some major - at times. Why? Well, there are a stack of reasons - more so than the total number of people-fixations, I suspect (given our complexities as human beings).
Sometimes this can be good, if it leads to resistance to bad changes, or stops people throwing the baby out with the bathwater, or leads to new things being implemented more effectively (as I tell other engineers about new treatment processes, probably 80% of what isn't known is probably bad - and I then explain how to overcome those things that can be ameliorated).
When, on the other hand, it leads to blind rejection of the sort I described above, it is not good. (The utterly moronic interactions around which way to align toilet paper or folding vs. scrunching are truly puerile and really should be avoided.) In the case of that person in the example above, it led to me being reluctant to waste my time talking to him about possible changes on anything, and reinforced the negative view I have of conservatives.
I hold an opinion that the overwhelming majority - NOT all - of conservatives lack in self awareness, lack in observation skills, and have an excess of the rigid resistance I have been writing about.
The problem is, so do some progressives.
Thus, I was going to title this "on conservatives", but after I remembered my last point, I decided to stick directly to the main issue: petty resistance.
Note 1
From https://www.answers.com/Q/Who_said_'Those_who_know_and_know_that_they_know_are_wise_follow_them':
“We meet four types of people in life,
And we must know how to deal with them:
Follow them who know, and know that they know.
Wake them who know, and know not that they know.
Guide them who know not, and know that they know not.
Shun them who know not, and know not that they know not.”
(unknown)
A Similar Version
“Those who know and know that they know - they are the wise - follow them.
Those who know but don't know that they know- they are misguided - enlighten them.
Those who don't know and know they don't know- they are the students - guide them.
Those who don't know and don't know they don't know - they are fools - avoid them.”
A few other quotes follow - and two articles:
“Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” Mark Twain (see https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/539867-never-argue-with-an-idiot-they-will-drag-you-down)
“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.” Harlan Ellison (see https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/harlan_ellison_922874?src=t_ignorant)
“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.” Marcus Tullius Cicero (see https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/marcus_tullius_cicero_156288?src=t_ignorant)
“To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant.” Amos Bronson Alcott (see https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/amos_bronson_alcott_142842?src=t_ignorant)
“To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.” Benjamin Disraeli (see https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/benjamin_disraeli_130754?src=t_ignorant)
“Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.” George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (see https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/155564-those-who-will-not-reason-are-bigots-those-who-cannot)
“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” Søren Kierkegaard (see https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/35782-there-are-two-ways-to-be-fooled-one-is-to)
Articles:
- “How to fight the Dunning-Kruger effect”;
- “The Gullibility of the Narcissist . . . The narcissist’s self-serving defences can end up making them defenceless”.
