Unknown knowns | Power Line

I’m certain I haven’t recommended a Peggy Noonan column in more than a decade. But her weekly column (“Declarations”) in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal today speaks to my “unknown knowns” thesis. At one point she writes regarding the Charlie Kirk assassination,

We don’t even know what to do with what we know.

I would say that’s because we didn’t know we knew it three days ago. Some more context from Noonan,

So pray now for America. We are in big trouble.

We all know this. We don’t even know what to do with what we know. But the assassination of Charlie Kirk feels different as an event, like a hinge point, like something that is going to reverberate in new dark ways. It isn’t just another dreadful thing. It carries the ominous sense that we’re at the beginning of something bad.

I don’t use the word hinge or pivot for this moment. I think unveiling works better. We are not (will not be) traveling in a different direction. We haven’t changed direction, instead, we now see for the first time the true faces of those around us.

Wait, there’s more! Noonan quotes from Hemingway (“gradually, then suddenly’). She quotes from Benicio Del Toro in Sicario (2015).

I’ve also been quoting the Robert Frost line, “the only way out is through” of late. Today, I add the Flannery O’Conner “everything the rises must converge.”

If I can find a copy of the Noonan column available to non-subscribers, I will post.