Most of our issues, if not all, stem in a way from lack or poor self-esteem. It's not as clear-cut and see-through as we'd like it to be, but even a person putting you down can be projecting unto you how they really feel. I am big on self-improvement books, the good kind, and even the least ingenious and ill-conceived ones have something good to offer. Reading was how I survived my depression and how I learnt the things I never got from my family, even though they fed and sheltered me, I always wanted more than that. Curious as I was about life and death, religion, philosophy, even some poetry and music, well, all of that saved me. Now that I have time to revisit some of those classics, I know just how much I can understand other things that in the past made only theoretical sense.
There's an anti-intellectualism in the U.S., it's a culture that celebrates idiots (Homer Simpson, is my favorite of them all; Peter Griffin, a close second, and Al Bundy a close third, just to mention a few) and even has a belittling name, "nerds." I am, very much, proudly so, a nerd. I understand why a society that condones capital punishment and abortion (how can you be pro-life and yet for the death penalty, is mind-boggling to the rest of the world). We get many things right and we're not the first nation to praise stupidity, in the past religion was used for cheap labor. Christianity, which sprang from Judaism, just like Buddhism sprang from Hinduism, is a far more humane and modern doctrine than the Old Testament. Jesus himself was a Jew and a very vocal and revolting type, he didn't last a week in Rome. Climate change, is a reality; of the almost 29,000 leading scientists in the world, less than a hundred doubt so. Even in science, you see, there are disparities, but the consensus is nearly universal on certain matters, like climate. I need not knowing dying to know that the after-life was a trick ancients used to get cheap labor; I mean, if you promise faithfully devoted people some great reward in the afterlife, then working without pay and under horrible conditions seemed okay.
1 comment:
Nah, man! AP classes at high school, mastering English as I have without schooling, read every memorable author, my intellectual leanings are undeniable.. I AM a certified, 100% nerd! By nerd, I mean with an intellectual curiosity beyond the norm and above average intelligence. That I work out and have outgrown my shyness, that's not reason enough to deny me of my erudite nature!
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