What’s a Blundering Oracle?

Welcome to my blog!

In a nutshell, a blundering oracle is an imperfect authority.

The theme of this blog arose from my dislike of authoritarian people and organizations and my belief that people make mistakes.

“Blundering Oracle” is a phrase that appeared early in the text of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. Thoreau was talking about Deucalion and Pyrrha of Greek mythology, who were the only humans to have survived the great flood, and who consulted an oracle about how to go about repopulating the Earth.

Concerning the mythical Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, Wikipedia says, “Once the deluge was over and the couple had given thanks to Zeus, Deucalion (said in several of the sources to have been aged 82 at the time) consulted an oracle of Themis about how to repopulate the earth. He was told to “cover your head and throw the bones of your mother behind your shoulder”. Deucalion and Pyrrha understood that “mother” was Gaia, the mother of all living things, and the “bones” to be rocks. They threw the rocks behind their shoulders and the stones formed people. Pyrrha’s became women; Deucalion’s became men.”

Thoreau stated flatly, “So much for a blind obedience to a blundering oracle, throwing the stones over their heads behind them, and not seeing where they fell.”

Indeed.

And who is a blundering oracle? Although most of us are not persons “through whom a deity is believed to speak,” anyone might fit the description of “a person giving wise or authoritative decisions or opinions” which aren’t necessarily correct.

We’re all human and we all make mistakes. Most of us offer our opinions and advice pretty freely, often without being asked and sometimes without anyone else paying attention. Think about some of the ridiculous things people say and do, including the mistakes you’ve made and the bad advice you’ve given or received, and I think you’ll see my point. Now think about some of the people who are political leaders, religious figures, media personalities, rock stars, “influencers” or any of the multitude of people trying to cultivate a following, and there you go.

All are potential “blundering oracles” and blind obedience to any of them is a really bad idea.

This is a driving principle on this website: I am in favor of critical thinking, honesty and transparency, and I am opposed to blind obedience to anyone or anything that might prove to be a very fallible idol.

About the author

I make absolutely no claims to perfection; I’m as flawed as anyone. I have been blessed to survive sixty-plus years on this planet, much of it through no fault of my own but rather through the grace of God or dumb luck, depending on your beliefs. That longevity has allowed me to see and experience some things.

At the present time I am living in the metro Denver area and working a production job in Colorado’s legal cannabis industry. My job helps me pay the bills, but moreover, since some of my responsibilities don’t require my full bandwidth, I have time to think about things. I’m going to try to put some of it into words and send it out into the universe.

I take pictures occasionally, and I like to share some of those when the opportunity arises. Also, I have have been known to play guitar from time to time, mostly for my own enjoyment.

About the site

Blundering Oracle was first published in Autumn 2017. I wrote a bunch of posts over a period of months, then archived and deleted them and started over. From 2018 until early 2021, I published 59 posts. The last post of that era was titled “Ex-President For Life,” written during Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial and arguing for his conviction. Well, we all know where that went.

I abandoned Twitter in late 2022 and dumped Facebook in early 2023, departing both social media platforms in response to Trump’s reinstatement on the sites. Once again, I archived Blundering Oracle and deleted my posts. The site lay fallow until just recently, and this post marks its rehabilitation.

I might revisit and update some of those earlier works. Certainly I expect to revisit some of those subjects. In many cases, I believe they continue to be quite relevant to where we are and where we might go from here. In any event, I’ll try to make it interesting, thought provoking and worthwhile.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed here, unless otherwise noted, are my own. They don’t necessarily reflect the views of my current or past employers. And Blundering Oracle (this website) has no affiliation whatsoever with Oracle Corporation (the technology company).

I’m not a lawyer, doctor, clergyman, elected official, etc., so use your own judgment.

Carry on!

Thank you for reading, commenting and/or sharing my stuff.

Use your powers for good.

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