Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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6 AUG. 27 - SEPT. 2, 2014 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM ATTENTION! Local Businesses Advertise and Promote Your Business All Year in UP & COMING WEEKLY'S Exclusive "Best of Fayetteville" • Special Edition • September 17, 2014 Advertise, market and promote your business in the most popular and most read edition of the year! Published, Distributed and Online in the Fayetteville, Ft. Bragg and Cumberland County area. Be among the "best of the best" when this popular and valuable edition and reflection of our community hits the streets on Sept. 17th. RESERVE YOUR SPACE TODAY! For more information, rates and deadlines call (910) 484-6200 or visit our website at www.upandcomingweekly.com. Best of Fayetteville 2014 Special Edition Today we shall ponder whether knowledge is good or bad. Does knowledge trump opinion? We shall teach the controversy. Some people for reasons best known to themselves, feel that knowing things is a good thing. Other people for reasons best known to Talk Radio, feel that knowledge is a bad thing. I am on the fence. Knowledge does create problems. Knowledge brought us bad things like the atom bomb, Facebook and daily updates on Miley Cyrus. However, knowledge also brought good things like Cheese Whiz, the Spork and Duct tape. Knowl- edge has results going both ways. I had a dream in which I was sitting at an after dinner table with a group of people making small talk before they were able to escape into the night. One of them asked me, "How many wrong errors did you make?" I proudly replied "All of my errors are wrong." This pretty well undermines my credibility on whether knowledge is good or bad. Having sunk my own credibility about the inherent value of knowledge, let us consider what people much wiser than I have said about the relative value of knowledge. Perhaps they know if knowledge is a good thing. Consider the following: "Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts," said William Burroughs in a moment of lucidity. "Facts are stupid things," said Ronald Reagan in a moment of candor. "Stupid is as stupid does," said Forrest Gump's Momma. I am not sure this helps. The jury is split on the relative value of knowl- edge. A wise dude, Albert Einstein, commenting on time, noted that "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." Now we are getting somewhere. If everything happened at once, it would be like a teenage girl putting on makeup and texting while driving through a red light at an eight-way intersection. That would be a bad thing. Thank goodness for time so this sort of thing never happens. Most will agree that everything happening at once would not be a good thing. Does this mean that multi-tasking is double plus ungood? If knowl- edge is good, and if we have the ability to do something, shouldn't we go ahead and do it regardless of the consequences? The police in Ferguson, Mo., had a video tape allegedly showing Michael Brown taking a box of cigars. Was it a good thing for them to release the tape in the midst of the turmoil in order to toss some dirt on the reputation of a dead teenager and perhaps excuse his killing? Did it help the situation? You decide. Mahatma Gandhi once said (when he was not busy in- venting Mahatma brand rice) that we should "Live as if you were going to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." The Mahatma comes out on the side of knowledge as being a good thing which is opposite of the position of William Burroughs and Ronald Reagan. Robin Holcomb, a fairly obscure folk singer, seemed to agree with the Mahat- ma when she warbled her verse "The light is only perfect for a very short time." Learn what you can for as long as you can. Ms. Holcomb's and Mr. Gandhi's positions come under the heading carpe diem which is Latin for "seize the linoleum." This advice was once given in Animal House to Kent Dorfman, AKA Flounder, after he had consumed too many adult beverages at a fraternity mixer. The ultimate resolution of whether knowledge is better than opinion rests with you, gentle reader. As you decide, consider what President John F. Kennedy once said, "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." He said this before the invention of Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. JFK must have been psychic as these networks function quite comfortably financially without the discomfort of thought. Personally, I come down on the side of knowledge being a good thing. My belief system on the utility of knowledge is informed by Animal House, the greatest movie ever made. The statue of Emil Faber, founder of Faber College which is the home of the Delta fraternity in Animal House, has an inscription that says it all: "Knowledge is Good." As for me, if Emil Faber said it, I believe it, and that settles it. Knowledge is good. To Know or Not to Know by PITT DICKEY PITT DICKEY, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910.484.6200. Your Home, Your Style, Your Budget! u NEW LOCATION! u on Sycamore Dairy Road (Behind Pricilla's) You set the budget – We'll stick to it! FREE in-home consultation on kitchen & bathroom remodels. BEFORE AFTER In-stock carpet starting at 69¢ sq. ft. • In-stock vinyl starting at 69¢ sq. ft. Monday - Friday 7:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. • Saturday 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 3760 Sycamore Dairy Road • (910) 779-0107 www.HomeEssentialsNC.com