The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.
Alvin Toffler
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I am a member of the human race. sometimes I wish I had a choice in the matter. With the human mind as grand and powerful as it is, why do people insist on not using it? I read the liberal press and the conservative press because I feel I have the right to know what people think. And what I find out is that most people don't think. They react and call it action. They hold beliefs which they call knowledge. They express opinions which they call truth. They condemn and call it justice. They hate and call it righteousness. They provoke and say it's civic duty. They practice vengeance and say it's equal rights. The attempt to deprive others of their civil liberties under the name of family values. They slap simplistic labels on just about everything so that they don't have to think about it. Instead of being original they settle for being a carbon copy. Instead of being an independent thinker they join a gang. They are squeamish, cowardly, depraved and morally corrupted, and they don't even know it.
There are those living today whose beliefs and opinions are solidified, cast in stone and set up in the cemetery of the mid 20th Century. One hopes and expects that worn out prejudices have disappeared from society only to find them cast up on the shores of the world like detritus from some sunken ship.
There are still cloudy minded folks who claim that the reason for homeless people is that they refuse to work. Others are certain that every effort to improve society and make it more compassionate is a move toward communism. I have read articles that claim any differing point of view as a conspiracy. People are stuck in the mud of old fetid ideas, washing in the swamp and eating the garbage they are fed by those who refuse to "learn, unlearn and relearn."
It's not that people don't look. It's that they don't see. They listen but they don't hear. They criticize everyone's behavior but their own. They make the same mistakes expecting different results, and when they don't get them they blame someone else.
I am a 20th century man. I was born during the second World War. I was in high school during the Korean War and the McCarthy witch hunt. I was a young man during the Viet Nam War and the revolution of the 60s. As I grew up I watched the amazing rise of technology. I know that old ideas were once new ideas, but now those ideas belong on the Antiques Road Show, not on radio, TV, the pulpit and the Congress.
DB
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Tomorrow: Brother Theodore
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5 comments:
DB
The way it is truly. It is so easy to do what you have always done and to not question the sacred cows on one's belief system.
Sadly this is the way of the world of thinking in many areas. I am appalled to actually see myself writing these truths. Fear of change and someone different is the driving force for so many.
I wish it were different and I know mine is the thinking I can change while hoping for some influence with those with whom I connect.. I do this for a living and I know the challenges.
Linda
If we could only find a way to really make folks think, vs. just react.
I know what it is like to learn, unlearn then have to relearn.
I worked hard to learn not only the requirements to be a Veterinary Surgeon but also over the following years how to put that knowledge into practice.
I was then rear-ended by a drunk driver and suffered brain damage that robbed me of my learning.I lost the ability to comprehend the written word and at my worst I could not determine the meaning of spoken word.
I was treated with psychiatric drugs that made things worse. I was told I was bipolar.
Finally I paid for consultant neurologist who diagnosed the brain damage due to the trauma of the road accident. After far too many years for me to get any compensation.
I then fought to relearn by writing, as I could not read. This has helped me in relearning the ability to comprehend the written words of others.
I never had a problem with the output system it was the ability to comprehend the input that was severely damaged.
I started reading books that I had read before. I have a very good memory and this helped me.
I still have great problems reading anything new.
I still have a problem with the spoken word and find the telephone a severe trial where there is no other language(i.e body) to enhance the meaning for me.
I read your quote with great joy. It seems I am not as illiterate as I thought.
All this adds up to what we've come to be - a lazy society. What happened to the voices who stood up against segregation, the voices who loudly protested the Vietnam War. Are we as a society truly leaving those voices to the corrupt thinkers, without raising a whimper of protest?
I stand up for my beliefs. Wish more people did, instead of taking the easy road and leaving the door open for the fear mongers. There used to be a time the words - Hope and Change meant something.(Hugs)Indigo
DB, I love the analogy of shaking the trash bag to make room for additional, newer "trash."
We are well overdo for a shakedown. Maybe someone should just take out the trash and put in a new bag? Might be easier than trying to root out the apathy that saps the energy to change.
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