Conventional Wisdom

John Kenneth Galbraith coined the phrase "conventional wisdom." He did not consider it a compliment. He wrote "We associate truth with convenience, with what most closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being or promises best to avoid awkward effort or unwelcome dislocation of life. We also find highly acceptable what contributes most to self-esteem." Economic and social behaviors "are complex, and to comprehend their character is mentally tiring. Therefore we adhere, as though to a raft, to those ideas which represent our understanding." In his view conventional wisdom must be convenient, comfortable, and comforting---though not necessarily true. While it would be silly to argue that conventional wisdom is never true noticing where it may be false or possibly sloppy or self-interested thinking is worth questioning.

During the 1980s advocates for the homeless told us there were 3 million homeless Americans. We all sat up and took notice but more than 1 of every 100 people were homeless? That seemed high but experts said it. The same expert said 45 homeless people die each second---which would mean 1.4 billion dead homeless every year. At the time the U.S. population was about 25 million. Even if they meant to say that one homeless person died every forty-five seconds, that's still 701,000 dead homeless people every year. Roughly one-third of all deaths in the United States. Makes one wonder.. When pressed on the figure of 3 million homeless, they admitted it was a fabricated number. Journalists had been hounding them for a specific number and they did not want them to walk away empty-handed.

Watch your television sets for examples of "conventional wisdom.".