Who is responsible for possessing the right answer?

 

Who is responsible for possessing the right answer?  I was very deliberate in the way I worded the question?  The major assumption is that a correct answer is warehoused somewhere, or by someone or by some entity.  What is a certainty is that no one, or no entity possesses all the correct answers.  There are obviously questions that have yet to be answered or in some instances will never be answered.  Some (academics mostly) spend their entire lives searching for an answer to a particular question.  In some cases there is considerable evidence that an answer can never exist.   If you feel like abusing your brain click here to read about the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.  I hate to admit that at one time I actually understood some of that stuff.

Another way to clarify my thoughts are to answer the question; "What is your go to source for information and answers?".  Currently this list would include several online sources.  One response may be YouTube.  I use it quite a bit for DIY projects.  The more projects I complete the more in awe I am of my father.  He was able to complete a multitude of projects without the aid of YouTube.  Other answers may be more specific.  Some people may reference a specific news source such as CNN or Fox news as the go to source.  Others may get answers from a specific podcast.  Others may forgo online media and use a religious text such as the Bible or the Quran.  Others may search Buddhist or Hindu writings as the source of all information and all answers.  The latest media for information and answers is artificial intelligence.  No idea where that will take us.

 My interest in this concept was heightened when I came across this video.  This video is one of many that humorously discusses the movie Idiocracy as a documentary.  The creator of this video lays out a very detailed and scholarly argument.  Most of which I am not particularly interested in posting about.  Feel free to view it and investigate all his claims and references.  The creator also cites the work of 3 scholars, again feel free to investigate them and come to your own conclusions as to the validity of their works.  What really peaked my interest is the concept of "outsourcing of knowledge".

To guide myself through this I will be using quotes from the video creator and I have done my best make sure these are portrayed as accurately as possible, both in content and context.  If you are not familiar with the movie the video does a good job of summarizing the salient details. 

The phrase that piqued my interest occurs at the 1 minute point of the video.  The presenter relates our current times with the movies theme with the comment:

"Not because nobody knows anything but because everyone thinks somebody does."

What this phares asserts is that people are content because someone or some entity they trust can answer all their questions.  In the movie this is continually emphasized by the characters reliance on the product "Brawndo" and electrolytes.  In the movie crops are failing.  The obvious reason is that the crops are being irrigated with Brawndo not water.  Brawndo is being used because it has electrolytes and plants crave electrolytes (according to the Brawndo corporation).  When the main character asks the leaders to explain what electrolytes are their reply is; electrolytes are what plants crave.  Basically the simple knowledge of growing a plant has been outsourced to the Brawndo corporation.  Nobody knows what Brawndo is or what electrolytes are but they are sure that the Brawndo corporation is guiding them in the right direction.  In other words the all farming knowledge has been outsourced to this corporate entity.

As the presenter says at 6:11 in the video:

"psychological necessity to project the illusion of knowing onto someone or some entity because it relieves us of the anxiety of living with that lack, that gap of knowledge that thing we are missing"

and continuing at 6:50 of the video:

"idea that there is someone or something out there who has what we are missing is a comforting necessary illusion"

Not knowing the answer can be a rather unpleasant mind set.  So the illusion that the answer is out there can be comforting.  However if I review some of the clips of the movie I start to believe that the characters are not under the illusion of someone knowing the answer.  They are actually under the delusion that Brawndo has the answers.  As Wikipedia states a delusion is "a false fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence."  This is evident in the leaders refusal to even consider alternatives to the current course of action.  They continue to insist that Brawndo is the answer to everything.  The fact that corps fail to grow should be evidence of an incorrect farming techniques.

The answer to the question "Who is responsible for possessing the right answer?" is not really relevant.  As the movie finishes their are still a multitude of problems plaguing society.  As the main character (His name is Joe) tells people, it is up to them to figure things out.  The real question should be "how do we become confident enough with our understanding to move forward?"  In the movie leaders are so sure (aka deluded) that they continue a never ending cycle of failure.  They never once question what they are doing in spite of the evidence that their current course of action is flawed.  In the end it up to us as individuals and groups to find the correct answers.

I'll have to think about this more to understand how we do that.

Answer to cow question Link: