Unabashedly Skeptical
This morning, I was having a cup of coffee and doing my usual morning scroll through emails, articles, social media, etc. I read an article about healthy eating, which was pretty good, then looked to see who had written it. If the author had any training or credentials as a dietitian or a nutrition expert, she did not say so. Nonetheless, speaking as someone who has had some of that training, I thought the article was really good and offered sound advice. But that is how I am—I suppose I am a skeptic. I take very few things at face value and regularly fact check things I hear and read. I even fact check myself on the regular, checking things I think I know to be sure I am on the right track. Sometimes I find that I was on the entirely wrong track!
The other day, I was watching the news, and that phrase, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” came to mind. At least some version of it came to mind, so that set me off on a search of what the phrase really is and who said it. I first saw that Winston Churchill said something pretty close to that, but then I dug more and found that the version you just read above was before Churchill and was in a book by the philosopher George Santayana. Smart guy, that Santayana. As I was reading about him, I found another of his quotes, “Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect and it is shameful to surrender it too soon,” - And another, “To covet truth is a very distinguished passion.”
Here is another thing I looked up so I could be sure I was not simply expressing my opinion—some antonyms for skeptical are unquestioning, trusting, naive, and gullible. Let me tell you that any one of those words can get you in big trouble really fast these days. It is easier than ever for cheaters and scammers to make things seem completely legitimate. I have heard it said that we live in a “post-truth society,” where even photographic, video, and audio evidence cannot be trusted as being real.
Last week, we loaded some hay and feed pellets into our UTV and headed up the hill to check on our oryx herd. They know that people in the UTV are almost always bringing snacks, but they are still skeptical. They walked toward us and looked us over very carefully, then walked past us to get downwind so they could check us even more thoroughly. Only then were they willing to come closer to partake in the snacks we put out for them. They are even skeptical of each other! We brought in three oryx from another ranch recently, and they still have not assimilated into the herd. “Just because you look/smell/sound the same as me does not mean that I trust you automatically!” I wish humans would be as cautious.