Donald Rumsfeld RIP
Donald Rumsfeld came across as twinkly and avuncular- but that was the private man- who doesn't really concern us. No doubt his family will miss him.
The public man was one of the makers of the Iraq war- about which future historians are unlikely to have anything nice to say.
He will probably be remembered best for his dictum about unknown unknowns- which has always struck me as an elegant and witty summation of the human condition.
The full quotation is...
“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.”
The public man was one of the makers of the Iraq war- about which future historians are unlikely to have anything nice to say.
He will probably be remembered best for his dictum about unknown unknowns- which has always struck me as an elegant and witty summation of the human condition.
The full quotation is...
“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.”