Francis Berger
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The Unacknowledged Obvious

12/13/2019

7 Comments

 
I have been thinking quite a bit about denial and the existence of what I would call ‘the unacknowledged obvious'. The unacknowledged obvious refers to the denial or non-affirmation of the flagrantly self-evident, the clearly observable, the readily apparent, the swiftly deducible, the freely provable, and the overtly indisputable. Simply put, the unacknowledged obvious concerns thinking or action that intentionally rejects or willfully ignores the existence of the straightforward, the undeniable, or the conspicuous.

It goes without saying that the UO is a cornerstone of modern leftist thinking and often serves as the foundation upon which leftists construct many of their nonsensical arguments and worldviews. However, since the unacknowledged obvious deals with phenomena and circumstances that are glaringly, well, obvious – it cannot always rely on the usual leftist defensive positions of relativism, perspective, and bias.

On the contrary, the UO’s power lies mostly in its ability to present a completely false, but seemingly noble form of ignorance. The 'nobility' of the UO rests upon the ability to never consider the 'unthinkable' as possible or real.

Leftists employ the UO to deal with the manifestation of any circumstance or phenomenon that flagrantly conflicts with their high-minded beliefs. Rather than question the validity or sanity of their supposedly-benevolent assumptions when facing obvious realities (which would entail learning from experience), leftists find comfort in refusing to acknowledge obvious realities whenever these contradict their invented and inverted morality.

Seen in this light, the unacknowledged obvious is reality denial par excellence – the very essence of the commonly employed term – wrongthink. 

The unacknowledged obvious has always existed in some form or other, but as far as I can tell it has never been employed as wantonly and, sadly, as successfully as it has been in the past decade or so. I often wonder what the limits of the UO could be; but then I remember I live in a civilization where a person can change their sex at a whim without actually changing anything and have the enlightened governments of the West enforce this whim upon society in the name of human rights - well, in a world like that I imagine the UO has no limits at all. None whatsoever. 
7 Comments
bruce charlton
12/13/2019 17:53:16

I don't see any limits either. I'm reminded of that quote attributed to Dostoevsky that without God everything is possible; because anything can be justified. I regard the problem as that deep. Once we have rejected unconscious tradition and innate common sense (which only work when accepted, and fall to pieces when interrogated) the absence of a core to thinking means that it is unmoored and incoherent and merely 'associative'. Opposite observations are enlisted as 'evidence' to porve the sam assumption; because the defiinition of evidence is unmoored and arbitrary. Deate decomes merely playground taunts with a bigger vocabulary.

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Francis Berger
12/13/2019 18:48:27

@ Bruce - Yes, Dostoevsky was at his prophetic best when he wrote those words.

I keep thinking - well, that has to be the limit. Surely, it can go no further than that. Then it goes further, even further than I could ever have anticipated.

Denying the obvious has also become a rather lucrative industry as well - there are endless opportunities to be had - in the form of research grants, media jobs, political office, NGOs, etc. - for those who possess a passion for denying the obvious.

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bruce charlton
12/13/2019 20:52:30

There is, however, nearly always a fairly obvious reason for D-ing the O; usually to create a greivance group which then become 'clients' of the Left.

The earliest denial was in the 1960s that intelligence is (substantially) hereditary and differs between groups according to class (also race, but that was not relevant in the UK). The research which showed this difference was actually done by Old Left psychologists - but then suddenly it was fascist to say so! Because the Left wanted (and still wants) to claim that different educational and workplace performance was due to prejudice and discrimination - and the entire UK education system has been restructured according to that (deliberate) lie.

This kind of thing has been extended from one area to another - especially in relation to sex, sexuality and race; and the New Left rebuilt their constituency on that basis - the basis of denying the obvious; so they cannot give it up without throwing away the very basis of their claim to power.

This is just one way in which the mainstream of politics has misleading, dishonesty and deliberate lies at its very foundations - which is, of course, evil! Because unrepented evil breeds evil, as we all know from bitter personal experience.

Francis Berger
12/13/2019 21:38:36

@ Bruce - "the basis of denying the obvious; so they cannot give it up without throwing away the very basis of their claim to power."

That hits the nail on the head. Acknowledging the obvious would end the lie; ending the lie would would drain them of their power, which would hinder their ability to promote damnation.

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Bookslinger
12/14/2019 05:00:13

Corrolary to Dostoevsky.

H. G. Wells:
If there is no God, nothing matters. If there is a God, nothing else matters.

https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1124677 (no actual citation given)

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Ingemar
12/14/2019 18:43:33

The unacknowledged obvious sounds very familiar to the late Lawrence Auster's concept of the "unprincipled exception" which is defined thusly:

The unprincipled exception is a non-liberal value or assertion, not explicitly identified as non-liberal, that liberals use to escape the suicidal consequences of their own liberalism without questioning liberalism itself.
Alternatively, the unprincipled exception is a non-liberal value or assertion, not explicitly identified as non-liberal, that conservatives use to slow the advance of liberalism or to challenge some aspect of liberalism without challenging liberalism itself.

Example: Thomas Jefferson famously wrote "all men are created equal" yet he owned slaves. And more recently, the mentally handicapped Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez forwarded her Green New Deal, but when criticized for the fact that she takes Ubers every day, said "I still have to live in the world.'


http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/002053.html

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Francis Berger
12/14/2019 19:18:07

@ Ingemar - Thanks for the link. It was an interesting read. I only read Auster occasionally before he passed away. The unprincipled exception appears to refer to incoherence, when an assertion or action runs contrary to a deeply-held or expressed belief. Politicians and activists of all stripes utilize it constantly to forward their aims or hinder the aims of others.

In this sense, yes, it does run parallel with the UO, which is really just a form of denial (my insight offers nothing groundbreaking in this regard). What intrigues me at the moment is how far these exceptions or denials will continue to extend in the short term (next decade or so). At what point (assuming there is one) do the high-minded beliefs begin to crumble when faced with the glaringly obvious. I would have thought the whole gender thing was one of these points - but that doesn't appear to be the case at all.

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