Quote of the Week...from Ursula K. Le Guin

There are no right answers to wrong questions.            ---Ursula K. Le Guin

Fantasy and science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin passed away this past Monday at the age of 88.  It seems like there have been more deaths lately than usual...it's most likely because they are of people like Sue Grafton, Ray Thomas...and now Le Guin...all of whom I have come to respect and admire for their imagination and skill at their chosen crafts.  I did read the first three books of Le Guin's Earthsea series back in September of '16 as well as enjoying the '70s television adaption of her novel The Lathe of Heaven...you can explore this blog's archives to read my reactions to Earthsea.  But now it's about the above quote of hers...

The simpler the quote, the more difficult it often is to pinpoint exactly what the individual meant when he or she presented it...and this is a pretty brief one.  I can only offer my own interpretation, which is that most people really aren't disciplined or trained enough to consistently ask questions that aren't either loaded with embedded assumptions and biases or are so vague and general that any answer is necessarily going to be meaningless.  An example of this was the poor journalism practiced when a reporter yelled at President Trump while he was before them, "Are you a racist?"  Whether or not you agree with the assumption embedded within the question...that Trump just might be a racist...posing that question to him in those circumstances was a statement in itself besides being too general, any answer from the president only of secondary importance...so he was right to ignore it.  So what constitutes a "right" question?  If you are trying to collect an informed answer from someone, your question needs to be specific and if there are any assumptions underlying it, you should be candid enough to preface your question with that acknowledgment...simply stating beforehand "Assuming that..." will do in most cases.  After all, by questioning and answering we're supposed to be engaging in communication...and people have their own different values and understandings about what certain words and expressions mean to them...

I have been watching the C-Span channels of late and am usually pleased with the informed way that senators or representatives question people at hearings.  Usually.  When the person being grilled is an official already in office and there is a set subject up for discussion, the quality of questioning is refreshing...and I walk away from the experience feeling that I have learned something.  However, when the hearing is for a nominee by the president, the questions tend to disintegrate into softballs by the president's own party members and loaded questions by the opposition...leading to very little being accomplished.  Would that folks learn to discern better the difference between good and bad questioning and hold those responsible for them more accountable.  Y'know, maybe I'll start to collect instances of poor questioning I hear on TV and regularly lay them out on this blog...no one political party or belief system holds a monopoly on them and journalists who should know better are often the worst offenders...