I've tried to insulate myself as much as possible from the past two months' media orgy surrounding the death of Anna Nicole Smith. Nevertheless, when I logged on to CNN's website today, I couldn't miss the big headline announcing the dramatic news that the father of Smith's child has been identified at last.
Great. Fine. Nice. Can we forget about her now?
It is a depressing commentary on the state of our culture that our media spend two months ranting and raving about the death of a woman whose only contribution to society was her enormous rack. Certainly more ink has been spilled about Anna Nicole Smith in the past two months than about the Darfur genocide in the past year. And for what?
A woman who became a B-list celebrity by taking her clothes off died in a hotel of a drug overdose, leaving behind a child with doubtful paternity. Truly an unexpected, unprecedented, consequential event. She will continue to be mourned by masturbators everywhere, but can we please now give more media attention to news that actually matters?
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To be wise, observe; for observation is the source of wisdom.
"A wonderful, maaaagical animal!"
To be wise, observe; for observation is the source of wisdom.
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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."
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