Monday, March 1, 2010
Egomaniacal... or simply yet another example of my being Usually Right?
The question posed in the thread title concerns... me.
You know... I'm a lucky guy. I really am! I may not have the status, salary, or all the common trappings of my more successful friends, but I have the time - the leisure - to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge.
The written word - theory, fact, analysis - is my oyster... my continuing education.
Of course I'm not so lucky as the folks who get paid to research and opine... but as those of you familiar with my "lifestyle" and travel related blog postings know... I do ok.
(*GRIN*)
Here's what I want to know, though: Isn't a thirst for knowledge a trait that should be not only applauded, but advanced... passed on?
I'm very proud to be Godfather to my best friend's daughter. She's a lovely young woman of fifteen - a freshman in high school.
She's bright. She'll no doubt do well in life. She enjoys all the advantages of having loving, materially successful parents. On all counts she's a well-adjusted adolescent with a bright future ahead of her.
A while back I suggested to her father - my best friend - that he have her start reading my "newsbites" on a daily basis.
A bit of background: My buddy is politically aware, involved, and broadly knowledgeable. He holds a bachelor's in finance, an MBA, and after working for several years at IBM he decided to start a second career and so went to law school and is now a successful attorney in a midtown Manhattan business law practice.
My pal is as interested in the sort of social/political/economic/historical stuff I'm interested in. Like me he's been "a Wall Street Journal man" since high school. While he doesn't have my level of contextual and factual command...
(*IMMODEST CHUCKLE*)
...pertaining to certain areas of shared interest which I possess, truth be told, he doesn't have the time to spend on accumulating such knowledge that I do.
Few people do...
(*SHRUG*)
Nor does he have the academic background in history, political science, and foreign affairs which I possess.
Which is perhaps the secret to his success... but I digress...
(*HUGE FRIGG'N GRIN*)
See... seriously... that's my point in wanting his daughter - my Goddaughter - to avail herself of my "newsbites."
Obviously I believe most folks would benefit from "piggybacking" upon the knowledge I pick up day in and day out via my reading and which I willingly pass on to anyone interested in taking advantage of my labors, but my Goddaughter isn't just anyone... she's my Goddaughter!
My buddy humors me... but I know he's not taking my request to heart; he certainly hasn't acted upon it. I think this is a bad decision.
As a freshman in high school... as a young woman who is destined to live the life of an upper middle class American - hopefully beyond "merely" upper middle class - it seems to me that getting her familiar with the sort of info she'd learn from reading my daily "newsbites" would only serve her well; will only serve to make her a wiser and more knowledgeable person than she'll likely turn out to be absent early and ongoing exposure to such information and insights.
Com'on... the average American is a relative ignoramus! Sure, in theory my Goddaughter is getting a fine education - and relatively she no doubt is! But look at where the bar is set!
The kind of info I highlight daily within my "newsbites" is - frankly - knowledge which I highly doubt many of my Goddaughter's teachers possess.
The kind of info I highlight daily within my "newsbites" is the sort of knowledge that all citizens should possess... but rarely do.
Anyhow... that's my position.
I'm posting this... er... post... specifically for my buddy's benefit.
Nah... in case anyone is wondering, no, he won't be pissed...
This post is just my way of reiterating the point that my pal should take me up on my... er... offer.
My... er... suggestion.
Remember pal... The Godfather Is Always Right!
Hey... I think it's in the Bible...!
(*WINK*)
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5 comments:
It is a "suggestion"--not an "offer"--since the commodity is available free to the general public. I can also provide an unsolicited opinion that as a godfather, you'd make a good economics guru. But, setting that aside, perhaps it is your bombastic style that makes your buddy reluctant to urge his daughter to expose her young mind to your vast fund of knowledge?
Or, perhaps your buddy realizes that what you consider to be "wisdom" is actually a mixture of opinion, materialistic bias, conservative theory, and effervescent "fact," that will (hopefully) by the time the girl becomes an independent citizen, have long since been phased out in favor of entirely different sets of circumstances. The analysis of data in the service of crunching numbers is not the best way to learn how to think. Bookkeeping is a tedious chore tended to in the spare time of a person of culture, and then only if it must be done by oneself and can't be outsourced to specialists. Certainly a fifteen year old girl has much more important things to learn about than the vagaries of tax law and political cynicism.
No, Rob, it's an "offer" in the sense that I'm providing a service.
Saying "the info is available free to the general public" is like saying access to case law is available to the general public so therefore there's no need for attorneys.
(*SHRUG*)
What I provide is a filter; I separate the wheat from the chaff - I prioritize and beyond that provide not simply a link, but a time-saving digest.
ROB WRITES...
"...perhaps it is your bombastic style..."
No. And that's the thing! What I'm guessing it is is that he just doesn't want her to have to "bother" with being an informed citizen.
Seriously... what I think it is is that he believes she should do neither more nor less than her peers, and since her peer will be largely raised - and even "schooled" in the formal sense - on an intellectual diet of pablum and propaganda - that's all he expects for her.
See... THAT'S my concern! My concern is that this is "cultural" in the sense of most Americans being "anti-intellectual."
Here... let me try to broaden what I'm getting at: My Goddaughter's mom is a computer programer for IBM. I've asked her if she's ever taught her daughter any technical skills that "the kid" wasn't learning in school. The answer... "no."
(*SHRUG*)
I find that appalling.
Same with my buddy. As I've noted, he was a finance major in college, he has an MBA, he's a practicing business attorney. When I ask him if he ever "teaches" his daughter any useful "work related" (professional) skills his answer is also "no."
Here's what I'm saying: For whatever reason - lack of confidence, a desire to coddle, perhaps sheer laziness - most parents seem content to "leave it to the schools" as far as their child's education is concerned and by doing so I believe they're doing their children a disservice.
My dad was a master carpenter. Yes, as a young adult I worked with him on occasion, but if only he had actually taken the time to teach me from an early age I'd have a valuable skill today.
Take the kids of car mechanics. They should definitely be "taught" stuff by their mechanic parent.
Here... let me put it another way. We as a society far too often "go through the motions" rather than actually doing what should be done.
Take "bring your child to work day." It used to be a fairly big deal - at least in terms of "awareness." People knew about it. Folks participated. It became a TV plot vehicle. (*SMILE*) Yet, what did it really amount to? It wasn't really about "learning" - at least not at a level beyond what a class trip would offer. No... it became about the "social element" of the day.
* To be continued...
BILL
ROB WRITES...
"...perhaps your buddy realizes that what you consider to be "wisdom" is actually a mixture of opinion, materialistic bias, conservative theory, and effervescent "fact"..."
No!
(*GRIN*)
If that were the case I'd have no problem!
(*CHUCKLE*)
No, Rob... that's the thing... my buddy is "to the Right" of me!
No, no... my buddy is "right in line" with the thrust of my posts. He sees my "newsbites" not as propaganda and not as unimportant, but as on-target info.
That's the thing that drives me nuts; my pal agrees with me that if only the average American was "aware" of, "exposed" to the sort of info my "newsbites" provide than perhaps the average American would better "deserve" the franchise.
(*SMILE*) (*SHRUG*)
It's just... he doesn't seem to think that this "theory" applies to asking his own kid to spend 15-minutes to a half-hour "studying" current events as provided by the window of my "newsbites."
Rob. Let me put it this way. If my Goddaughter goes to college and comes back home "transformed" into a "college lib" my pal will be appalled and disappointed.
YET... he refused to proactively attempt to mitigate the possibility by asking her to "get a jump" on exposing herself the the facts, analysis, and background that might prevent her from being scammed by liberal professors in a few years.
Rob. You know how I often charge you with being "pro-ignorance?" Well... my pal is "anti-ignorance" - IN THEORY - but his actions (in my view) amount to a betrayal of that "anti-ignorance" label.
In other words, he wants the same OUTCOME as I do for his daughter - my Goddaughter - but he expects her to get there by osmosis.
(*SHRUG*)
Being knowledgeable takes WORK. It takes EFFORT. My "newsbites" are a "shortcut."
Yeah... of course it's better to read Moby Dick as opposed to the Cliff notes (I'm dating myself here!), but to tell you the truth... I've always thought that "reading the Cliff notes" was better than not reading anything at all.
* To be continued...
BILL
ROB WRITES...
"...a tedious chore..."
(*SNORT*)
Just my point! For most folks LEARNING is "a tedious chore."
Learning ANYTHING is "a tedious chore."
Americans are by and large intellectually lazy.
(*SHRUG*)
I'm fighting AGAINST that tendency, Rob. You seem to fight "for the right" to remain largely ignorant.
I know you consider yourself "a person of culture."
(*SMILE*)
OK.
But so that you "English majors" have a developed world to exist in you need people who understand how to keep our developed society going.
By that I don't mean that everyone has to be a true "Renaissance Man (or Woman)," but the real world knowledge - civic knowledge... economics, history, politics, etc. - that you disdain is something all Americans should be familiar with.
But they're not...
(*SHRUG*)
You consider yourself a "Roman." What you just can't see, Rob, is that it was "Romans" like you who led to the Empire falling and hundreds of years of "dark ages."
BILL
No, quite to the contrary; I consider you to be the Roman. I consider myself to be a Greek. Contemplate the distinction, if you care to. I would want my own daughters sitting as far from the feet of Rome as possible. Socrates, not Cicero.
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