Great Fucked Up Minds Think Alike

Would you really rather marry a duck-billed platypus than end up like old Oedipus Rex? Sigmund, who tellingly thought being a mother's favorite a boon, fundamentally misperceived young Oedipus' tragic fix. It was epistemological, not psycho-sexual, though there's no question men have a different epistemlogical style from the fairer sex. You see, what marks us all and makes us Everyman is not the urge to fuck your mother and kill your father, conscious or unconscious. Rather, like Hamlet, we are all confounded by the basis of our own knowledge.

Consider.

Having heeded the oracle's warning, Oedipus set out to avoid his fate. Just one little epistemologic problem: he assumed his knowledge of his parents' identity was infallible. It no more occurred to him to doubt the truth of what he knew than it would occur to a fish to discover water. And how many proofs of his impeccable knowledge did he not receive? He bested the Sphinx by his wits, won fair lady, and ruled Thebes unquestionedly. And we, so secure in our fundamental assumptions, from religious to scientific----what surprises await us? Like Casey-- or was it Yogi?--said: YOU DON"T KNOW NUTHIN.

Do you?

But let us take a different tack. Consider Hamlet, who knew damn well what to think but couldn't prove it to anybody. He sure as hell knew who killed his father and married his mother. Because of a hallucination! Sure, Hamlet; whatever you say, babe. I've got the Truth, but I just can't convince anyone. Shades of Godel. I think I'm losing my mind.

Or Job. Another random case. I know I ain't done shit to deserve this, he opines. His friends disagree. God kindly lets THEM know they're completely full of shit when it comes to knowledge about Hisself. Sure Job knows he's done nothing; that's his story and he's sticking to it. At least until he repents in dust and ashes. And like Finnegan begins again.

Might we learn something from these gentlemen? Or shall we, too, darken a design with ignorance?