I was born tired — but with the quality of mother wit, the gift of women like Gloria — to that, for all my talking and listening, my waiting in vain for the eternal generality that seems to lie just beyond every argument and every speculation, to that I have added not one jot.
F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Beautiful and Damned (1922)
Taking the easier route, eternally adjustable generalities appear to be what educated midwits are after. Leak-proof simplifications midwittingly imbibed with their education. All of which is yet another generalisation, but fortunately not an eternal one. I hope not anyway.
Another aspect of eternally adjustably generalities is that they allow us to be superstitious without being traditionally superstitious. They facilitate secular mystique and the hunger for socially agreeable simplification. Without this, traditional political parties would go nowhere, which unfortunately for us is the only suitable place for them.
The search for eternal generalities is easy to understand though. Something like a solid scientific law, without the dry rigour of science, but politically, academically and socially useful. That’s another generality, but this one isn’t eternal either.
And yet many sceptics must sometimes find themselves at one time or another waiting in vain for the eternal generality that seems to lie just beyond every argument and every speculation.
5 comments:
It is wise to come in out of the rain.
Yes, they are very useful. They can be cautiously introduced to test out the sympathies of new acquaintances, and waved enthusiastically to signal your membership of a favoured group. They can never be disproved in ordinary conversation, as there will always be exceptions that prove the rule. ("Well, of course, there will always be a few corrupt postal voters, and some summers are going to be a bit cooler. But it's the general trend that's important...")
Most importantly, they give the impression that those who hold them are seasoned, experienced,reflective types, basing their opinions on long and careful observation, rather than something they just read online and like the sound of.
General 'rules of thumb' often turn into the hardest of iron laws - because people seek eternal generalities to make their lives simpler and more comprehensible.
I've found that with instructions like 'as a rule of thumb do this, unless these conditions apply' the 'unless these condition apply' evaporates like the morning dew. Too much complexity to hold in your brain perhaps?
dearieme - it will be if the time comes when we can't buy modern waterproofs.
Sam - that's it, they are easy, adaptable and socially approved. It can almost seem churlish to pick them apart in social situations, as if that is equivalent to picking apart a personality which in a sense it is.
DJ - overcoming the problem with rule of thumb instructions seems to be how some organisations become extremely efficient by defining everything. They do stumble over a few exceptions to their rules, but it can create remarkable levels of efficiency.
I've just ordered some things from Amazon - a few clicks and they will be delivered tomorrow.
@ AK
Yes indeed, for instance help desks can be very effective for the common issues. But once you go off their script they are lost and sometimes there is no other way forward.
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