You are quite right, everyone makes assumptions, no one has perfect knowledge, and we all make mistakes. On the other hand, there is a high degree of reliability in the basic operations of the informed mind. For example, I know how to drive all over the DC area; I know how to make reservations for airplanes, trains, hotels, and shows on- line; and I am so good at estimating travel times that I have not been late for an appointment in years, and then, only by ten minutes. Thus, observing one's own performance, or the performance of those around you, one comes to repose a certain level of trust. I trust my wife, not only morally, but assessing her competence, to a very high degree, for example.
Within this context, there are things one has a high degree of confidence in, and against which one judges the reliability of others. For example, I know a lot about art, especially modern art. Someone might know a fair amount, and have a valid opinion on the subject, and not know who Andre Derain is. However, I would be very skeptical of the competence of someone to opine on modern art who does not know who Matisse, Pollack, Duchamp, and Warhol are.
Similarly, one compares one's experience and the inferences that can be drawn with the assertions of others. For example, in my dealings with federal and state agencies, I have generally been served as well or better than when inquiring about something from a corporation, so I am generally skeptical of libertarian assertions that government stinks and privatization is always better.
As a resident of the Washington area, I periodically see demonstrations, both small and large, downtown. The last couple of large anti- war demonstration wore the air of a big carnival, full of street vendors and people eating soft pretzels, full of costumery (getting out the old hippie duds) and music (I saw a few troubadors). I do not mean that the people were not sincere, I mean that the very circumstances of their public assembly belied the idea that the government was taking a nose- dive into fascism.
My brother is married to an African- American woman, and they have three children. They travel a fair amount, little vacations to New York or Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They are never treated badly, nor are they made to feel uncomfortable, with one possible exception from a waitress in Boston. This jibes with my observation of inter- racial couples I have seen in places like beach resorts, and also with my experience when my wife and I are babysitting their children and taking them out. America is a far less racist country than it was when I was a child.
In these and other ways, granting that my impressions are not scientifically verified, and could be mistaken in some way, nevertheless, I find that the observed world is a particular way, and that some are inhabiting either a different world, or not paying attention to what is around them. |
