By BILL RICE, JR.

1. Conventional Wisdom (aka the “authorized Narrative”) is almost always wrong … or dubious.

This maxim actually provides the sole reason I started this Substack. My “mission statement” or newsletter description reads: “Topics ignored by the mainstream media or that challenge conventional wisdom.”

By now, every pundit and poster who opines on world events has used the term “The Narrative” countless times, which is a tacit admission that everyone understands the importance of the “authorized narrative” to their lives and world. To me, the accepted Narrative of the moment is largely synonymous with “conventional wisdom,” which is “wisdom” few people challenge or question.

The maxim that “conventional wisdom is almost always wrong” began to strongly resonate with me when I bought a book published by former Washington Post and Newsweek columnist Robert J. Samuelson in 2001. The title of Sameulson’s book is Untruth: How Conventional Wisdom is (Almost Always) Wrong. (Note the fourth book review by 35-year-old would-be pundit, Bill Rice, Jr.).

Samuelson’s thesis is important only because of the obvious validity of my second maxim …

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