Blowhards

There have not been many times in my life when I can claim that I really know the actual context of the situation, all the facts and personalities involved, and what is the way to proceed, but, recently, I had two occasions when I knew exactly what was what, and people spouted off to me with sweeping statements, conveyed with certainty, sarcasm, threats, insults and commands as to what I needed to do, and they were clueless and wildly inaccurate.

These people are classical blowhards. The older I become, the less do I accept what anyone says at face value. They may be an enemy. They may be lying. They may love the sound of their own voices. They may be long on temper, emotions and bullying tactics, but woefully deficient on soubstance of argument. They may be competing with me. They may just be uninformed. Whatever their deficit, their supreme self-confidence and strident assuredness is not correlated to what they have actually mastered and thought through.

We all need to slow down and listen. We must do thorough research. We must consult experts. Once we are sufficiently knowledgeable about the facts of the situation at hand, then we can offer a somewhat authoritative opinion.