For My first real post On my wow related blog - I shall not be doing a subject related to Warcraft *blushes* rest assured that this won't become a habit. As wow is far more interesting than real world stuff :)
Anti- intellectualism, is really fear. The more stuff you know, the more you realise that there is an ocean of thing’s you don’t know, and that you will never know.
Let me put into a story my views on this subject (an allegory for those clever and pedantic among you a fable for those religious)
A wholly ignorant man is like a man who is six foot tall, but who is standing up in a nine feet deep hole which is six feet in diameter. His world is a small and in many way’s familiar place. He knows the edges and how far his world goes. He feels safe there.
This type of man’s opinions is based on what he knows. It is easy to give him an epiphany; it is easy to create a follower of him, a zealot, a soldier. Consider the effect that a religious text would have on this type of man. He would suddenly have a mirror and light by which to see everything by. He would have the tools to understand the world. He would not understand that indoctrination had taken place, or that his view of everything would be based on a very biased and limited opinion.
This would have occurred because he had no other teachings, with which to balance and make reflective judgement, on his one source of learning.
But I digress... Now back to our man, he stand’s happily as always, content with his small world and this day is much like every other day before it. He has no expectation, other than that tomorrow, will be like yesterday, which is very like today. He hums a small tune and stares as always at the wall of his hole, finding it endlessly interesting. Suddenly a strange object whacks him on the head, ouch! He rubs his sore head and pick’s this strange thing up. It is many sheets of paper bound together by two thicker boards. It say’s DICTIONARY on the front.
Now imagine that our man is standing on his dictionary and this being a weighty tomb he has added six inches to his height. He is still standing in his nine feet deep hole, but now he stands an impressive six feet six. Bah! Still only those walls’s to look at...
So, a little time passes and our man has a yearning to read some more. He shout’s out one day that he wishes there were some more book’s in his world. And by some lucky chance a pile of books fall into his hole. Books of all sorts’, stories and books on geography. Books of politics and science, theology and history.
At first out man searches for books that are simple. He goes through these rather speedily and even find’s a large book called an atlas that mean’s he can now understand lot’s of part’s of his dictionary that made little sense to him before. The ideas of space and of time begin to have meaning.
As he goes through this book to find the meaning of words, he see’s lots of other words he doesn’t understand. About places and people and things that are not in his atlas or dictionary. By this time our man is standing on several more books: he notices a curious thing.
The hole he is standing in is just that: a small mean place. He decides to stand on some more books, on this pile he is now an impressive eight feet tall. He sees the edge of the hole he is standing in and becomes afraid. What is out there? How did I not notice the edge’s before? I though this hole was the whole world but it’s not. If I was wrong about that, what else don’t I know...?
He now looks at the remaining pile of books that he has yet to open. He is scared, there is a lot he doesn’t know and many words torment him because they are mentioned and he doesn’t know what they mean. He knows he might find the answers in the other books, still unread. But he knows that every one he read’s makes him taller. The books he stands upon bring him closer to the edge of the hole now.
What if he doesn’t like it out there... what if it’s dangerous? What if he can’t get back into his own hole once he is out? He wishes that he was safe in his hole again and that he didn’t know it was a hole, but he wants to read the rest of his books, he is aware that there are some things’s mentioned he doesn’t yet know and he is curious.
He decides to read the remaining books. Some real thick ones too, ones he didn’t like the look of at first. Books on Economic theory, and philosophy, books that talk about other books. So many that it makes our man’s head spin. The breadth of names and thing’s that he doesn’t know actually increases by the time he has finished these new books.
Surly this can’t be right he thinks. I know more and yet have less answers and more questions that before I started to read. When I had read just one book, I thought I knew everything. Now I have read fifty, I feel I know nothing.
He ponders this strange thing that has happened. He places the other large books under his feet with the rest, making finally a tall pile of books on which to stand. He climbs upon them and finally see’s over the lip of the hole in which he has lived his whole life in till now. He climbs out his hole.
He looks upon what his new won knowledge has brought him. He looks upon a far greater hole, this one twenty feet deep and six hundred feet in diameter in this larger hole are many more books. He notices that scattered about this large plane there are many small holes. He is curious and wanders to the edge of one of them. Our man notices another man standing in the small hole, very similar to the one he has just come from.
The other man seems contented and wears an expression of happiness on his face. Our man decides to help the other, as someone helped him. He knocks some books in to the hole of the other man. The man is startled and picks up the book, a frown on his brow. The other man opens the book and begins to read.
Suddenly our man realises where the book came from that hit him on the head. The book that started it all. Someone who had climbed out of their own hole had decided to help him. To see his own hole for what it was and to begin his own climb. He smiles and hopes this man will help someone else when he has to, climbed from his hole.
He realises now that he was ignorant: and ignorant too of the fact, he was ignorant. Our man now understands that when he builds a pile of books big enough to escape this hole, he will find a hole of greater diameter yet, and a bigger pile of books.
He understands then, that he may never find the hole that does not lead to a greater hole, or at least to one big enough, he cannot see its edges. And yet once upon a time, he could not see the edges of his very small hole. That every pile of book’s he stands upon will only make him question everything more and give him two questions for every one answer he finds.
He to realises that it is his duty to help others see the dimensions of their holes as well. He must knock more books into the holes of his fellow’s and never despise them. For he was once as they are now.
Our man has changed and he wonders if he is happier now than before? He does not know this answer and feels he might never know it. He look’s now at his little hole fondly and knows he cannot ever live there again. For now he will ever be aware that it is just a small hole, in a world of vaster holes.
He has changed, he has become educated and will spend his life seeking the hole with no walls, he doubt’s he will ever find it, though he will seek it all his life.
Enjoy all, and leave any old comment's if you like.
