The Learned Pig: Finally?

06 February 2007

Finally?

In a preview of the ten o'clock news during a break from House tonight, I heard a news anchor ask the following question:

"Coming up, the deep freeze, day 2: how long until we finally get some relief?"

Finally? Did I hear that correctly? Finally? Are you functionally retarded? I seem to remember that autumn lasted through mid-January this year. How soon we forget.

"Finally get some relief" from two days of actual winter. Ha! Now THAT'S the kind of absurdist sensationalism you can find only in the American media.

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Why the learned pig?

In early 19th-century America, a certain traveling show featured a remarkable pig that, on command, could spell out letters to form words. This "pig of knowledge", or "learned pig", baffled superstitious mobs, and excited frenzied accusations of witchcraft. In response, the pig's trainer published a pamphlet that sought to dispel the rumors by detailing his methods of instruction, and demonstrating that this apparent miracle could be accounted for through reason and observation alone.

Tacitus once wrote, "everything unknown passes for something splendid." Humans by nature desire to know, and when they encounter something seemingly inexplicable, they tend to fill in the holes with religion, superstition, or inane anti-intellectualism that dismisses the need for knowledge altogether. But these are cowardly subsitutes for reason and observation. The learned pig reminds us that if we wish to be wise, "observe; for observation is the source of wisdom."