Certainty, always a sign

A found poem from the Sage of Baltimore

Moral certainty is
           always a sign 
   of 
  cultural inferiority. 

The more 
             -uncivilized- 
             the man, 
the SURER he is that 
he KNOWS 
                -->precisely<-- 
what is RIGHT 
and 
what is WRONG. 

All human progress, 
            (even in morals), 
has been 
             the work of men (sic) 
who have ~~doubted~~
the current moral values, 

not of men who have 
   whooped them up 
      and 
   tried to 
       enforce them. 

The truly civilized man is 
always /skeptical/ and 
   *tolerant*
       in this field 
          as in all others. 

His culture is 
based on 
'I am not too sure.'

---

“On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

— H.L. Mencken, 1920

Poem 24 of 31 in the series “The Liminal Season.”

Today is a found poem with text from the journalist HL Mencken. The prompt for today was “certainty” from my longtime friend, Mallie.