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It's best to circumvent a sophomoric condition.
If you can't, then resolve to experience it only briefly.
It's a conundrum in which people who believe a thing is true can become incapable of entertaining the truth of its falsity.
Being a high school sophomore represents, for many, a low point in this unfortunate state. Some of the more mature among us -- by no means all -- manage to complete their high school years avoiding the affliction. In my experience, girls accomplish this avoidance more than boys.
The dictionary defines sophomore as "conceited and overconfident but poorly informed and immature." A true sophomore never answers a question, "I don't know."
I'm a boy who spent his second year in high school in a dazed, sophomoric state, remnants of which lingered, hampering my adolescent development. With some, the condition lasts even longer. With a few, it never goes away.
Consider this example:
'"Jerry Falwell, founder of Liberty University, once opined that the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks that killed three thousand people were 'Probably deserved' because America had turned away from God. He blamed the pagans and abortionists, and the gays and the lesbians as well as the ACLU for inviting devastation on the country."
-- "The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory," Alberta, Tim (2023)
As it turned out, a group of terrorists was responsible. They had been planning the attack for years. Their leader, Osama Bin Laden, in his 2002 "Letter to the American People," identified the reason:
"To the American people: —– If you want a real settlement — return the Palestine land to us, all of it, from the sea to the river —"
Sound familiar?
Bin Laden made no mention of pagans, abortionists, gays, lesbians, or the ACLU -- all of whom had nothing to do with the attack. The proposition that God condoned the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans based on bigotry is not only poorly informed, it's profane, the characterization of their deaths as "probably deserved" immature and disgusting.
Not surprisingly, it is a woman who charted the way out of a sophomoric state. Though she was one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century (Stanford University Encyclopedia of Philosophy), many have not heard of Hannah Arendt.
Hannah was forced to flee Germany at the age of 33 in 1939 as the result of Hitler's rise to power. Hitler had evidenced dangerous sophomoric tendencies early on: He spoke of them, wrote of them, and then acted on them -- all warnings not heeded.
They should never have let the guy out of high school.
From Hannah, we learn this: "The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists."
A blindness that denies a route to salvation: "The truth will set you free (John: 31-32)."
If the definition of sophomore -- "conceited, overconfident, poorly informed, and immature" -- does not alone define the ideal subject for totalitarian rule, then adding an intolerance for truth and of one's neighbors completes that definition with its accompanying chaos and perpetual rage.
Are we again existing in a sophomore-level society? A reasonable argument can be advanced that we are.
The steady flow of disinformation degrades our citizenry and gives open-minded observers a headache. Smugness is enhanced in those whose arrogance is rationalized, not justified. And informed alternatives are no longer characterized as erroneous; they're evil.
Tens of thousands of people died unnecessarily from a preventable disease caused by a treatable virus, a tragedy that doesn't bode well for us or for the frogs.
"One study estimates that since the 1970s, around 200 species of frogs have disappeared, with a projected loss of hundreds more in the next century. Amphibians are declining at the rate of 3.79 percent per year ("Why Are Amphibian Populations Declining?," US Geological Survey)."
"They are our watchmen, keeping vigil over our ponds, marshes, lakes, and streams, our meadows and our woods, the quality of our water and our air -- frogs are portents of the greater ills that could befall our environment -- and us."
-- "Frogs Are Disappearing. What Does That Mean?" ( Mishan, Legaya, New York Times Magazine, Oct. 18, 2018)
Because they rely on disinformation, sophomoric politicians are uninformed. Their concern is being reelected, not becoming informed. To be elected requires money, not information.
Frogs carry information but no money. To raise money, sophomoric politicians create the perception of enemies. Frogs are not perceived as enemies; they make poor fundraisers.
The frogs are croaked.
I would rather feel the tranquility in the sound of a whippoorwill at dusk or hear the genuineness in a frog's croaking on a summer evening than some uninformed politician sprouting banalities of division or some guy telling me God is telling him which neighbor I should hate or fail to tolerate, not love.
We must start appreciating our God-given diversity, identify real enemies, not contrived ones, and recognize the difference between objective truth and political fiction. Only then can we work together to save the frogs.
And ourselves.
"Frogs are the heralds of dusk, their evening song laying the day to rest. Without them, it is only night."
-- Frogs (supra)
As it is, there is too much darkness.
Doug Pugh's "Vignettes" runs monthly. He can be reached at pughda@gmail.com.