The Outstater
A Word for You Old Fellows
BEING A MAN OF WORDS, I must take them seriously. Recently I discovered a new one that has wide application to my life, explaining vexations that previously were invexible.
The word is “non-cognizable.” Yes, I have stretched its meaning somewhat to fit my purposes but that is a feature of the English language. It is plastic, and alas becoming more so.
The legal dictionary says “non-cognizable” means a piece of evidence or information is outside the purview of a court. I have expanded that to mean something in which contemporary society has no interest, that could just as well disappear, that doesn’t really even exist. It can even be a person. Any white male over the age of 50, for example, is non-cognizable.
There is a study on my desk that purports to understand who in an extended family knows what about a family’s general goings on, gossipy and transactional. It turned out that the oldest male in the family knows virtually nothing, evidence that he is non-cognizable.
As the word has bounced around in my head in recent weeks, I have put together a list of thoughts that I now must admit are non-cognizable. Here it is with the obligatory trigger warning indicated by italics:
Cultures are different. That is not said judgmentally, only practically. What defines a culture, after all, is how it affects people, that is, its incentives and disincentives. Hundreds or even thousands of years of a culture picking winners and losers within a society has an effect. The individuals in one society may end up different than those of another — maybe better in some ways, maybe worse in others, just different. That, of course, can change over time, and individuals can adapt to new cultures, either imposed or adopted. All of that, dear friends, is non-cognizable today.
Government cannot solve every problem. In fact, there is strong historical evidence that it doesn’t solve any problems — outside the interests of its ruling circle anyhow. Government’s proper job in a constitutional republic is to protect individuals in various ways so they can solve their own problems as best they see fit. The country was founded on that principle. It is now non-cognizable, violently so.
Men and women are distinct. They have different life strategies and different strengths and weaknesses. Some think that has a Devine purpose. Others think it is some sort of cosmic joke. Whichever, it is a fact with which mature persons must eventually grapple. Non-cognizable in the extreme.
You may have your own list of non-cognizable thoughts. By definition, though, I don’t want to hear any of them. — tcl
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