Peggy Noonan got me thinking about bubbleheads, and epistemological self awareness.

This video is trying to sell something, but I’m thinking about the lessons it teaches on how to break out of your bubble.

This unique YouTube video, by Candy Spilner and Allan Rubin, captures some interesting aspects of epistemology, conversation, language, art and music. The video may seem pointless, even stupid — at first glance.

Look closer. Observe carefully.

It depicts the babbling bubbleheads who (having no deep understanding of the shortness and fragility of life) continue talking about nothing important — until suddenly (pop)  — life is over.

When was the last time you had a deep conversation about the meaning (and purpose) of life — with someone you love? Pop! Too late — your life is over. Babble, babble, babble … bloop! It mocks and ridicules post-modern foolishness, babbling bloggers, pontificating political pundits, promise-breaking politicians, TV talking-heads, shameless gossiping twitter-heads, and the continuing cacophony of all our careless conversations. In the babbling bubbleheads we see with penetrating perception – a reflection of ourselves.

Peggy admits that people living in big cities, working for big media companies are particularly prone to the bubblehead syndrome:

Let me say of myself and almost everyone I know in the press, all the chattering classes and political strategists and inside dopesters of the Amtrak Acela Line: We live in a bubble and have around us bubble people. We are Bubbleheads. We know this and try to compensate for it by taking road trips through the continent — we’re on one now, in Minneapolis — where we talk to normal people. But we soon forget the pithy, knowing thing the garage mechanic said in the diner, and anyway we weren’t there long enough in the continent to KNOW, to absorb. We view through a prism of hyper-sophistication…And again we know this, we know this is our limit, our lack…But we also forget it… And when you forget you’re a Bubblehead you get in trouble, you misjudge things.

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning will I bring to nought.

γεγραπται γαρ απολω την σοφιαν των σοφων και την συνεσιν των συνετων αθετησω.

I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE,
AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER, I WILL SET ASIDE.

Works of John Locke - page. 81 - Quoting the prophet Isaiah

לָכֵן, הִנְנִי יוֹסִף לְהַפְלִיא אֶת-הָעָם-הַזֶּה–הַפְלֵא וָפֶלֶא; וְאָבְדָה חָכְמַת חֲכָמָיו, וּבִינַת נְבֹנָיו תִּסְתַּתָּר

NOTE: I recently reorganized this blog with a new taxonomy. Epistemology is one of the new major categories. (The whole idea was to group all of my articles into major topics, and then tag the articles with meta tags – for the sub topics, etc.) Some people might have been thinking… “Hey Dude, what’s up with the big words?” Someone might have been thinking… “I don’t even know what epistemology means, so I won’t click on that word.” In the midst of this, I also spelled epistemology wrong (previously spelled epistimology), so now I’m correcting my mistake, and cleaning up the tags.

Epistemology – The study of theories about knowledge; a branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge.