Sam’s New Year’s Resolution

Obama shrugs

I dont know

Though we hear it very often, its an infuriating turn of phrase, and a choice one in political circles, recently made wildly popular by our president (see President Obama’s ‘I don’t know’ strategy — and its limits, by Chris Cillizza.) Somehow, our culture has accepted this phrase, although Im sure plenty of people are fighting against it. I dont allow my children to say it, and they hardly permit it from me. It seems we demand accountability from each other. Heck, I dont even allow other peoples children to say it within earshot, encouraging them to find other ways of expressing either their lack of knowledge, or, more importantly, their willingness to learn more.

Why do I find this phrase so repulsive?

I dont know is tantamount to surrender.  I dont know is an admission of incompetence, an acceptance of inability, an assertion of ineptitude stupidity, even.  And, I dont know equals I dont care.  If you dont know, find out. If its important enough to comment on your status of knowledge, then you ought to care enough to improve your knowledge. 

I dont know equals abdication, a refusal, I dont want to knowI dont wanna know is really surrender – dont attack me because Im blameless because I dont know. It worked really well in Germany in the 1930s and 40s I dont know about any concentration camps – until it didnt anymore.

Our society accepts the phrase because that seems easier than addressing the core issues. Many politicians have used the I dont know strategy, including our current one. He clearly uses I dont know in the extreme, as a tool to avoid culpability. He didnt know about the NSA spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He didnt know about any gun running in Fast and Furious. He didnt know about the IRSs targeting of conservative groups tax-exempt status applications. I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the IG report before the IG, eh, report had been leaked through, press, uh, to the press. He didnt know about how bad the Obamacare website was before its launch, going so far as to allow his Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius reiterate his non-knowledgeable status before the launch on October 1, 2013. (Heres a fascinating compilation of many of his assertions of his lack of knowledge.) To add credibility, the administration often will assert how angry or upset Obama is by his lack of knowledge, forgetting, momentarily, that I dont know is self-imposed. He is the most powerful man in the world. Knowledge is power. He has all the knowledge available to him. Instead, he opts against knowledge, if we are to take him at his word.

He understands that I dont know is a get out of jail free card, keeping him safe from the responsibility that comes with knowledge. That may be why those surrounding him admit to knowing of a pending scandal, but insist they didnt tell him. To the administration, being considered a bad manager is preferable to being seen as an accomplice in defrauding the American public. But thats where they are wrong. Plausible deniability does not equal absolution of sin.

I dont know is an insult, a shrug, a dismissal. It is, ultimately, disrespectful of both your audience and yourself. I dont know is really the archetypal expression of irresponsibility. It is the passive-aggressive battle cry of the liberal progressive. (That, and you dont know!)

In what might be the most interesting part of all of this, the media has been complicit in lending the I dont know strategy authority. In a CNN report on Anderson Cooper 360, titled, Did Obama Know About the Secret Wait List? Cooper illustrates this participation, while simultaneously taking the administration to task in the sub-title of the report Keeping Them Honest. Over one thousand servicemen may have died waiting for medical care, while the president was busy not knowing about the troubles at the VA, issues he had specifically campaigned on in 2007. He didnt know they were that bad. I dont know is deadly, sometimes. It is up to the living to answer Why not? and You should have known, to hold them accountable, not to lend credibility to a tired old one-size-fits-all phrase. I dont know is unacceptable. Its not an excuse; its a cop-out, and should not be tolerated from those who are sworn to serve.

Because I should only expect to get as good as I give, Im resolving now to banish the phrase from my life.

To cure an addiction, its best to replace it with a new habit. Im replacing I dont know with I know: I know, let me take a stab at it or I know, I will look up the answer or I know, Im going to find out. I dont know is a refusal. Its an end-of-the-line declaration. Its a halt. But, instead of saying, I dont know, say: I will further the discussion, I will find the solution, I will make the necessary analysis to find the truth.

Say I know.

I dont know is a denial more specifically, a denial of knowledge in general.

Enough! Lets go find the truth, seek the answers, press for accountability. I dont know is an acceptance of impotence, but you have at your fingertips the ability to know.

Never again succumb to I dont know.

So, thats my New Years Resolution: not say or accept the words, I dont know

I’ve really come to understand that I dont know is a white flag. And I refuse to waive the white flag. How about you? 

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