“Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.”
G. K. Chesterton– The Speaker, Dec. 15, 1900
Out of all the people of history, GK would be the one that I would want to have that park bench chat with.
Mitigating Chaos 
A quote for the times, sadly…
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He made a lot of sense.
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Ray;
WOW, well he wasn’t wrong, was he? I, from my POV, wouldn’t see ‘only’ that described interpretation. For me (maybe because I’m Swiss and learned early in life to be ‘neutral’?) it’s not ‘simply’ a question of ignorance although this could and often is well exactly what it is. But let’s begin at the beginning:
… a pompous name for indifference – indifference to me (again, I’m not that sure about my English, it’s not my first language) is another term for ‘I couldn’t care less’ / ‘see if I care’
… an elegant name for ignorance – ignorance I perceive as ‘doesn’t know better’ (often stupid but can also be ‘not having an advice/opinion’ and maybe still offering ‘a word of non-wisdom’. Am I totally wrong on either of these two interpretations?
So, to me impartiality really feels like: NOT feeling strongly for or against something but a rather neutral approach of (maybe observing?) – such as small children playing with puppets or such because there is no preference due to their gender, or a judge (always in my personal perception of course) whose first job should be impartiality as he would have to listen to both sides (except presently in the U.S…. as we could view and follow lately with the latest appointment) and not already have formed a positive or negative view.
Please don’t be offended by this foreign Style Police Officer – I’m just very interested in languages and their use and I’m always more than happy to be corrected, educated and proven wrong! I’m THAT flexible you see 😉
But I didn’t come to doubt Chesterton’s or your wisdom – I see exactly (and understand) what you’re saying; and I couldn’t really agree more – IN THIS CASE! And thanks to Dale who sent me astray – once more…. It was well worth it!
Have a good and stressfree day!
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