Wednesday, December 03, 2003
Defending SecDef on unk-unks
Rumsfeld recently won a "Foot in Mouth" award for saying :
The Rum-speak that I object to is the kind where he knows some true thing but says something that obscures or denies that truth. Technically, this is called a "lie".
UPDATE: David Beckemeyer writes:
Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know.This is unfair bashing. The media is getting all worked up unnecessarily. These three kinds of knowledge -- knowns, known unknowns, and unk-unks -- are perfectly good categories. Distinguishing among them is important for planners and strategic thinkers.
The Rum-speak that I object to is the kind where he knows some true thing but says something that obscures or denies that truth. Technically, this is called a "lie".
UPDATE: David Beckemeyer writes:
Now David, walk me through this. I don't understand how one could classify anything in the unk-unk bucket. You have things you know and things you don't know. How can you knowingly categorize something as something you don't know you don't know, you know?I reply, "What will be the cause of your next surprise?"
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