The following article is created using excerpts and some further developments based around the Historical Documentary Film entitled "UNKNOWN KNOWNS." This film is an interview based documentary regarding the strategic military thoughts and actions of a famous (or infamous --depending on your view) American Department of Defense Chief, Donald Rumsfeld.
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| "UNKNOWN KNOWNS" ? |
Rumsfeld made the following statement in one of his many controversial State Department news conferences.
"There are:
1. Known Knowns ... The Things we know we know.
There are:
2. Known Unknowns ... The Things we know we don't know.
There are:
3. Unknown Unknowns ... The Things we don't know about what we don't know. These are a failure of our imagination or the failure of an intelligent and imaginative reading of available intelligence.
There are:
4. (a.)Unknown Knowns ... The Things we fail to imagine. That is to say, there are things that you think you know that it turns out you did not. (Less!)
4. (b.) Or, possibly a correction of this definition could include or be a later modification:
"Unknown knowns" ... being (rather) "Things you think that you [possibly may] know that it turns out you do not know that you know." (More!)
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Rumsfeld, with all the disrespect I might hold for him, was a most "considered" or careful thinker. He, with all the errors of judgment that are attributed to him, was a student of communication and especially understood the importance of words ... their choice and their meanings!
One of his statements that has stood some test of time was: "The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence." This idea may not be so well known but DR was just saying though some things are "Not well known," or "not fully understood" that - this does not necessarily discredit the idea.
Some, tongue in cheek, queried that maybe DR was possibly gifted with some sort of 'prescience." DR assured everyone that his gift was ... "Not prescient" - rather he was ..."just worried." And he added that: "Everything seems amazing in retrospect. We tend to favor some possibilities over others. Priorities, are nothing more than the privilege of picking and choosing from obvious choices supported by one's educated imagination." DR
Some of "Rumsfeld's Rules" or Rumsfeld's Strategic Thoughts.
From DR's Snowflakes, i.e., his memos .... on white paper.
[A.] "Belief in the inevitability of conflict can become one of its main causes. In juxtaposition: If you wish for peace you will inevitably preparing for war." DR
[B.]"All generalizations are false." DR
[C.]"You don't control History and you are failing if history controls you." DR
I'll close off these thoughts by explaining that I am providing these select excerpts from the historical film documentary "Unknown knowns" to encourage all of us to engage in a more serious dialogue around our 'sources' of revelation, our growing trust in academia and our now pervasive post-modern pre-occupation with our own personal opinions!
For discussion or dialogue you might want to consider the true Truth of the Word of God on this subject of "unknown knowns" ....
1 Corinthians 2:7 "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ." (nkjv)
(Other useful texts: Romans 16:25-26; Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:26; or, Job 11:7; 38:1 to 42:6)
