On a random day, about two years ago, I was scrolling through the vast wasteland of social media and I stumbled up this image:

I am not sure why, but I immediately felt - let's say, mildly annoyed. It came across as obnoxious. And as it turns out, it is a twist on the original below...

I have no way of knowing for sure which image came first, but that is not the point. What both images seem to be saying is this: The more you read books, the more you realize how bad things really are - BUT, if you read a LOT of books, then you will see brilliance and wisdom (and hope?) beyond that.

This got my wheels turning. This really stuck with me and for some reason I have come back to this image several times. Three insights came to mind since the first time I saw this, so I wanted to share them here.

Knowledge does not equate to wisdom.

True wisdom can only be gained through experience, and perhaps some reflection. In fact, one would hard pressed to define the word "wisdom" (Spoiler Alert: Online dictionaries do not do this word any service). How many of us know a very intelligent, well read, highly educated person who holds ludicrous beliefs?

One could argue that the average Liberal Arts and Social "Science" professor is devoid of wisdom almost by definition. This is because Wisdom implies a certain degree of critical thinking. Anyone able to think critically at even a basic level would be able to observe that there is nothing scientific about sociology or the social studies. According to some Anthropology 101 and Sociology 101 textbooks (Yes, I have read and skimmed through a few), humans, tribes, and cultures do not conform to neatly defined boxes and conventions. So if we cannot classify humans in any way that would be considered "scientific" in terms of classification, in part because to do so would equate to stereotyping, then we can simply not call it science. One could debate this all day long, but that does not change the fact the the social sciences have hobbled themselves by this conundrum - to put cultures and peoples into categories and boxes is akin to enabling racism (according to them, not me), yet failing to do so mitigates any value they offer in terms of deeper understanding of the ways in which cultures differ and correspond.

Much like any well-read social scientist, or engineer, or doctor, or academic of any sort, every moment spent reading a book is a moment of experience lost. It is an unfortunate tradeoff, but a tradeoff nonetheless. And such is one of life's great paradoxes - the ignorant run about enjoying the fruits of life, flailing, clawing, and stumbling in search of the visceral. Only some will come to understand their context, and the greater context in which we all live. But at least they lived! Likewise, the learned spend their lives buries in books, searching for knowledge; and many do indeed find that. However, what is knowledge without experience? At this point the reader should call me out for pointing out the two polar ends of this, but that is also part of the point. It is the great mass of people in the middle that experience more or less of both. One might imagine it looking like a standard normal distribution curve - with the outliers being the self-righteous nerdy virgins locked in a room buried in books on one end, and hedonistic degenerates on the other.

It is clear to me from the image which is implied to be which.

Either way, it is a cute concept, albeit inspiring and perhaps well executed; however deeply flawed.

Inaction is the problem

Whatever might have been intended, this image paints itself into a corner; one can only achieve (enlightenment?) by reading more and more. Yet it fails to acknowledge the passivity of all three actors. The ignorant man staring at the wall, foolishly believing what he sees before him (news, social media, etc,) is looked down on by the two seemingly intelligent actors. But they are standing on the same street, on the same block, doing the same thing - nothing.

My youngest son saw this image when I first started jotting notes about it, and asked me what it meant. I asked him "Well, what do YOU think it means?" He said "When you get smarter you see more things?" I nodded my head in pride and said "Well said, son." (And no, I did not launch into a rant about the meaning of life, depicted through cartoon memes. That's what this blog is for!)

Then he asked me an odd question (he is THAT kid): "Dad, which one are you?" No joke, hand on my heart, my kid asked me that. My first thought was, dang - he thinks I could be any one of them! I replied: "I am none of those guys. If you zoom waaaaayy in there, you will see a small spot of green. About the size of a car's shadow on the ground. I am there sweeping and cleaning. I have not read as many books as the really high up guy, and I know too much to believe that life is all rosy like the guy on the left. And the guy in the middle is just staring at that mess and doing nothing about. So a long time ago I climbed over that wall and got busy cleaning up. No one told me where to start, and no one even asked me to do it. Maybe when you get older, you can hop over that fence and help me do some cleaning.

He smiled and then asked "When is dinner - can we have pizza?" Followed by a big grin. It worked - I ordered pizza right there. But a part of me hopes that my message sunk in.

And upon thinking about that moment, it occurred to me that I run the risk of coming across as more arrogant than any of those characters. That somehow my taking action is morally superior to learning. I also run the risk of exhibiting that working class defensiveness thing - "who cares about college, those guys probably don't even know how to tie their shoelaces" Neither of these was intended. In fact, in my head anyway, my sense was that perhaps we need all four types of man - and a few other types. After all, who writes the books? Who built that fence, who designed those factories; and who caused that destruction? My obvious choice was to hop off that hamster wheel and figuratively (and often literally) pick up a broom and get busy doing something useful instead of bloviating about it (this article notwithstanding!)

Tip deeplydisturbed for their post.