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Ignorance is a condition of the human soul that I have found as humiliating and detestable as any vice.
Ignorance dims the light of the human mind. It draws the curtains and keeps away the light that should shine on the human soul.
A soul without knowledge is a cold and dry place where life is strangled and stunted.
Blame the schools
The first failure of the school system is that it did not teach me to learn; it made me fairly educated yet ignorant. It did not tell me that knowledge brightens and beautifies the human soul. I was not taught how learning could open up my mind, break the straps that keep it bound, unleash its potential to fly, and allow me a clearer glimpse of reality. It did not remind me that by my nature as a human, I am ignorant and foolish – I am just an ape wading through a strange and complex reality. I am blind to reality and my self – All I know, if I ever do, is that I know nothing.
But if I can learn, I can reinvent my destiny. I can muster myself, my fate, and reality itself. When ignorance is overcome, ordinary apes build civilizations and make stupendous inventions.
But perhaps it was not school that was supposed to teach me to learn; maybe school was just meant to teach me to read.
In that case, then, learning is my responsibility – it is me responding to the inner nudge of my soul by which it yearns to know and better understand the world. Either way, in my final year in university, I remember promising myself, ‘I cannot wait to graduate so that I can start learning!’ I was finally free to learn.
When I read a book, I feel myself coming alive. A fresh idea in my mind makes me feel like a child again, curiously exploring the universe. Oh, how beautiful it is to truly learn! To be in the universe, to be a part of it, and yet to be also exploring and discovering it. That is divine! The astrophysicists have it right – I am the universe discovering itself.
It is the ultimate crime that our schools make learning seem like drudgery. These are no longer learning institutions but little factories that take young, brilliant minds and condition them to pass exams, making them rigid as a rock, just as long as they ‘send them to university’.
It is not like much else goes on in these universities, either. I did not expect to learn in university – my understanding was that university is the paradise they reward me with for toiling through twelve years of primary and secondary education. There I have four years to hang around, get my first girlfriend, and spend some more of my parents’ money before I am grown up enough to stop asking for it. Some professors and lecturers seemed to be on the same page with me on this.
Zone of awareness
Everybody I have met lives in a specific ‘zone of awareness’ about reality. The depth of the person’s knowledge determines where they lie in the awareness spectrum; the reality I experience only extends as far as my knowledge allows. I have seen this as I have continued to learn and grow, changing my perspectives and mindsets.
There are new zones of awareness that I have now which I am ashamed I didn’t have a year ago. Economic theory – how economies function and the flow of money – for instance, is a ‘zone of awareness’ within which the mind is exposed to whole new possibilities. It is impossible to be a master in every discipline, but I endeavor to expose myself to as many of these zones as I can.
I have seen ignorance and blindness of the soul, and I do not want it.
Light switch moments
Reading and learning are amazing because I get to have those ‘Aha’ moments from time to time.
This is when different threads of knowledge and thought randomly click and birth a new idea or insight. It is like a switch flicks and a light bulb comes on in the mind.
I have learned that what seems like déjà vu in these moments is the outcome of long and patient ‘brain work’. There is no instant ‘Eureka!’ moment; the mind has been working hard in the background - absorbing information and trying out different combinations of ideas. At random times, the brain will spew out novel ideas onto the conscious part of my mind.
That is how almost all of my creative ideas happen: I spend weeks and months deliberately absorbing information, I take time trying to put pieces of it together (usually nothing happens at this stage), and then, in a random instant, a thought fires in my mind, ‘That is it!”
In some cases, the idea or thought will be incomplete. This I will jot down, and allow my mind to go on putting the puzzles together, making a more complete picture. That is what insight is.
As I enter more zones of awareness and walk deeper into others, my mind becomes more effective at this.
Every sensory information the mind receives is raw material. Understanding this has made me more disciplined with the information and ideas I collect.
I have learned that it is not enough to simply read but that it is equally important to select carefully what we read. I have met people who are ravenous readers but what they consume is, in all honesty, informational junk. It has been my experience that the quality of reading directly reflects the quality of thoughts and ideas the mind generates.
Garbage in, garbage out.
And their eyes were opened
Other than awakening us to reality, learning reveals us to ourselves. It illuminates the blind spots of our nature.
People are generally more ignorant of their selves than they are of the world around them; it is harder to know yourself than it is to know other people.
When Adam and Eve took a bite of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, their ‘eyes were opened’ and they ‘saw that they were naked’. How blind we can be to our nakedness! How ignorant, foolish, and weak we can become and not even know it! It is sad for a person to be ignorant and blind and yet be proud of it.
But knowledge can from time to time draw the veil from off our faces and reveal to us our true selves.
What do you do when you realize that you are naked and ignorant? Scamper into hiding like Adam, pointing fingers and lamenting, ‘This woman you gave me, she gave me the fruit and I ate’? Or do you face up to it through learning and endeavor to make the candle of the soul burn brighter?
Great people know things
I have observed that our modern, post-industrial world is run by people who know things. I usually marvel at the sheer depth of insight and knowledge that truly successful people have.
They understand the world in its history, economics, and social dynamics, and have a capacity for a clear and accurate vision for the future. I am convinced that any endeavor to make a meaningful impact must start at this point of deep learning and insight.
Young kids should be introduced early to serious reading to develop a keen and deep understanding of the systems and dynamics of their world by the time they become adults.
Classroom learning, I have come to realize, is not only insufficient but potentially harmful in this respect. The textbook is good for providing the child with a standardized knowledge basis, but we cannot expect young people to shape the world using textbook knowledge alone.
One advantage of curiously understanding the world is that I can accelerate in life by learning more and faster. I have never accepted the idea that wisdom comes with age, at least as it is understood in our society. The norm is that there is a minimum age, usually way in the thirties, when a person gets the license to be impactful. I have unbounded faith in human potential and its capacity to manifestly impact reality. Only I can place limits upon myself by delaying my learning.
A mind keenly cultivated with seeds of knowledge and understanding cannot be resisted; it will bring forth a harvest of insights that transform the person and their world despite age or circumstance.
The problem is that society is sending young people into a complex world armed with mere textbook knowledge. They expect us to survive a gunfight with penknives. It is no wonder, then, that reality has and will continue to be so unforgiving to our generation.
What, then, is the antidote to this mess? Perhaps we should start by acknowledging that while we might be educated, we are helplessly ignorant. Whatever domain or career I find myself in, there are worlds of knowledge and ‘zones of awareness’ that I know nothing about.
And then knowing this, we humbly commit to learning, ravenously.
We have to understand clearly and concisely the way the world works.
The mind is the tool, and knowledge is its whetstone; we have to sharpen it with skill and passion. That is the surest license to getting into the rooms where society is shaped and big decisions made. And I sure don’t want to be outside that room! I have been outside, and I didn’t like it.
All mission in life is for knowledge. Knowledge elevates us from simple apes to makers of civilizations and shapers of the future. Knowledge peels off the masks of our ignorance and grants us a sharper glimpse of reality. It awakens our consciousness from slumber. It cures blindness so that we can see our nakedness and change.
Learning is the candle of the soul that burns steady. Insight and understanding are the license to be impactful. What a pity that we have replaced them with mere schooling!
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