You’ve been with the professors, and they all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have discussed lepers and crooks …
But something is happening here, and you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
— From ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ by Bob Dylan
There was a time in my college undergrad days (the 1970s), when I was a street troubadour on the Franklin Street Mall in Tampa, that I knew the lyrics to quite a few of Dylan’s early songs. But, in retrospect, I’m not sure I understood some of them.
In a 2004 ’60 Minutes’ interview of Dylan he said he had no idea how he wrote those songs. He also once said many of the songs had no meaning, that he “was just trying to make them rhyme” — which explains some of my favorites.
Looking back now, from the vantage of old age, having received approving eyes of professors; having engaged in many discussions with great lawyers; and having been both a professor and (by some standards) a ‘great lawyer’, I’m only now beginning to understanding what Dylan meant. I’m certainly not as impressed with my own credentials that I once thought were important.
Now I merely consider myself (in Emmanuel Kant’s words) “[B]y inclination a researcher. I feel in fullest measure the thirst for knowledge and the greedy desire to progress in it, as well as satisfaction at every advance”, utilizing my acquired knowledge and experience merely to facilitate that research. I not only want to know what’s going on in the world around me — more importantly I want to know why.
And ‘why’ can be very elusive.
Why, for instance, do some people have what seems to be an irrational hatred of Donald Trump. Whenever I encounter Trump Derangement Syndrome I ask the sufferer to explain why. Few can provide any explanation beyond what they’ve been told they should feel by the media — without any facts to support it.
Those with any semblance of a coherent explanation, are also very short on accurate facts. Conversely, there are supporters of Trump who can’t explain themselves either.
Why is that? Is it all simply irrational emotion? Does the future of this, the greatest experiment in self-government ever attempted, come down to nothing more than people’s undefinable feelings? Based on the discussions about ‘factions’ in the Federalist Papers, it appears the founders may have realized that.
Lately I’ve been re-reading a lot of what has been written by so-called ‘great thinkers’ — from the ancients to relatively modern — looking for insight into why people believe what they do. I’ve discovered, what I apparently didn’t completely grasp when I read them initially as part of my academic studies. That human nature has not really evolved since we have been populating this planet. Aristotle was asking the same questions I am now — and not getting any better answers.
Applying that realization to my personal life, I no longer try to understand why my wife gets mad sometimes. After all, if you read Greek mythology you recognize that even the Gods have trouble with their wives!
The older I get, the less I’m convinced I’m right about everything. In retrospect, like Ben Franklin, I’ve changed so many of the opinions I had when I was younger, that I’ve learned not to be so wedded to any of my current beliefs that I can’t recognize that I might be wrong.
Or, as Winston Churchill said after being criticized for switching from the Liberal Party to the Conservatives, “If you’re not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative at forty, you have no brain.” Now, approaching 74, I’m skeptical of all ideology.
Churchill also said, “I began my education at a very early age; in fact, right after I left college.” The older I get the more I can relate to that sentiment — and advise against going to college.
I am becoming ever more convinced that I began my education after learning not to take anything, or anybody, too seriously. Whereas from what I’ve observed about youthful college students, they take too many things far too seriously — especially things they know relatively little about, such as the life in the real world.
To me, a college education in the United States today can be explained this way:
Having an undergrad Bachelor’s degree reflects that you showed up to enough classes so you weren’t kicked out — and that with a campus map, you can find the library.
A Master’s degree means you actually went into the library, read some of what’s in the books there — and can regurgitate enough of it to sound erudite.
A Doctorate means you understood what you read, can explain most of it what it means — and, if you then get some real world experience, you may be able to apply it constructively.
I once said that to a high school classmate who never attended college, but became a highly skilled, successful tradesman. He asked what that makes him by having only a high school diploma? I told him that makes him lucky — that I envied him not needing the phony pretentious approval of some college professors to achieve a successful occupation!
So now I exercise my mind by writing a column for an online publication based in rural Colorado. A place we were attracted to, and bought property in, the first time we visited.
As I’ve said often, that publication provides the best coverage of local affairs I’ve ever come across. My initial columns were commentary on local topics the editor, Bill Hudson, had written about. But then I expanded into topics I found interesting. It came to pass that Bill asked me to pick a byline for my columns. So I came up with ‘A Different Point of View’ because it jumped out at me from a Dylan song (‘Tangled Up in Blue’) I was listening to at the time.
It also represented my belief that everyone’s point of view needs to be challenged — and mine certainly has, judging by the comments I’ve received in response to some of my columns.
But then, again quoting Churchill, “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”