This article from Armando Iannucci contains a core most important point: === > Seeking to justify the invasion, even though it had become clear the raison d’e

This article from Armando Iannucci contains a core most important point: === > Seeking to justify the invasion, even though it had become clear the raison d’etre for the war, Saddam’s WMDs, didn’t exist, [Tony] Blair said: “I know this issue has divided the country … I’m like any other human being – fallible … I only know what I believe.” // It feels real, an appeal to the heart, an offer of vulnerability, but that phrase “I only know what I believe” is a false friend: it sounds casual but actually subverts the tradition of empirical inquiry we’ve been successfully using since Aristotle. Normally, if we have a hunch, we test it. If we’re looking for an explanation, we eliminate every available solution or possibility until we find the right one. On a day-to-day basis, to survive, we first believe what we know. // Blair’s “I only know what I believe” is an unsuspecting admission that, for him, decisions are made primarily from gut feeling and a pool of emotions rather than from objective reasoning. This is perhaps understandable if you’re - if you are something else than a decisor [words from the submitter] === Repeat: a reliance on belief may sound casual - typical before ignorant -, «but actually subverts the tradition of empirical inquiry we’ve been successfully using since» ancient times. Thales proposes water as a Principle because he has noticed that sources of life are humid - the origins of the tradition of Thought point to an inquiry that seeks foundation. The conquest is ancient (and predates traditional philosophy - survival requires objective competence). As it often happens, it seems in fact weird to have to state what should be obvious - e.g. that "children believe and adults know" (i.e. that belief is at most a preliminary stage); even that such "belief" is "a closet of dangerous material" (strikethrough correction: it would be good if it were closed as a closet - it is unfortunately active). The point of the critical importance of reflection, verification, and inquisitive doubt, remains paramount in a society in which many factors have boosted decadence - a "society of children" -, especially in terms of forgetfulness over the elements constituting "the Basics". Said point is far from confined to dangers in politics (where some operators have stated that "politicians are forced to delegate thought, since they have no time to exercise it" - as if a surgeon were made unable to look before cutting). It is also relevant to the many voices which have in recent times presented a weak idea of General Intelligence, in which reflection, evaluation, criticism, truth-orientedness, investigation (etc.) would not be a Primary component.