No Nonsense
Right after the Penn State monstrosity broke, the Bleacher Report linked to a Charles P. Pierce essay* that stirred my sympathy, causing me to look into Pierce a bit further and even order a penny used copy of his book Idiot America from Amazon.com. So far, at least from the Intro through Chapter 2, Pierce is scathingly right on and my kind of entertaining. The front cover has George Washington in the saddle on a charging tyrannosaurus rex, waving his sword. Every sermon and book needs a subtitle, and this one’s is “How Stupidity Became A Virtue In The Land Of The Free.” Although printed in the upper right hand corner of the front cover my copy says “National Bestseller,” probably not to be recommended for most folks.
In his book Pierce offers three great premises, and the second one really catches my eye. Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it.
In the Pentagon long years ago I worked with a Marine Corps major then lieutenant colonel who taught me the best lesson of my life so far. Earl and I were working on an assignment together, doing a special audit for the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Financial Management. At the time I was a thirty-year-old Navy lieutenant commander with a probably unhealthy and undue respect for the flag officers whom we were auditing for the Secretary. As Earl and I were discussing our findings one morning, I mentioned something the admiral had told me. Turning to me, Earl said in no uncertain terms, “Let me tell you something, Tom Weller: just because the admiral said it, that don’t make it so.” It’s been a great lesson, valid in all walks of life, applicable not only to admirals but to generals, bishops, professors, bosses, preachers, politicians, presidents, and even to writers and authors, ancient and modern. My own rendition and motto is "Just because you believe it, even believe it fervently, even believe it with every fibre of your being, that don't make it so."
Earl was a crusty, no-nonsense character with no tolerance for fools, especially high-ranking fools, of whom there are many. Many, many, many.
Throughout Washington in those mid-1960s days before cell phones, signs were posted in every Navy office reminding everyone to let people know where we could be reached if needed when we were out of the office: “God knows where you’re going; but does your secretary?” Two or three times a month when the weather was right, Earl would close his desk drawer and make for the golf course. Rushing out the office door he would tell the secretary, “Hey, honey, sump’m ‘bout the Pentagon.” When Earl got calls that day the secretary said truthfully, “He’s not here, sir. He left in a hurry and said something about the Pentagon.”
TW