Posted by
Giacomo on Thursday, July 06, 2006 7:26:48 PM
... Eschew Obfuscation
...
To Avoid Unclarity ...
Ignore Puzzlement ... Shun Confusion ... Reject Bewilderment ... Spurn
Perplexity ... Evade Mystification ... To Refrain From Adding Unnecessary
Complexity.
While there are myriad cheap stunts within the war of attrition that is modern politics, arguably the most frustrating is employed, with great skill, (or, perhaps, accepted, with great readiness) by those of the secular left. A strident pundit, complete with feigned outrage, describes an opponent or their position in a narrow, unambiguous way, delivering more a tactical soundbyte than an accurate portrayal. Their rabid political
base willingly accepts this oversimplification, and bludgeon the opponent (and his ilk) ad nauseam ... "truth" born, time and
again, by assertion. Armed with the rallying cry, they wail for change
... the uninformed and ignorant speaking "truth to power" as the full ramifications of their demands or the reality of the situation escapes them. As often as not, the
talking points of today run intellectually and/or tactically counter to those of yesterday.
And the cycle replays ... tirelessly ... all nuance now lost within language of certainty.
The acceptance of any such lazy assertions is the antithesis of intellectual rigor ... no closer to Truth, but satisfactory to those who choose identity over veracity. To eschew obfuscation, then, is to expect ambiguity, and to ignore those who, whether ignorantly or deviously, speak/act/behave as though none exists ......... for it is only those who question the legitimacy of their own position that need to misrepresent that of their opponents.