"All that remained was the scientific specialist, who knew "more and more about less and less", and the philosophical speculator, who knew less and less about more and more. The specialist put on blinders in order to shut out from his vision all the world but one little spot, to which he glued his nose. Perspective was lost. "Facts" replaced understanding; and knowledge, split into a thousand isolated fragments, no longer generated wisdom. Every science, and every branch of philosophy, developed a technical terminology intelligible only to its exclusive devotees; as men learned more about the world, they found themselves ever less capable of expressing to their educated fellow-men what it was that they had learned. The gap between life and knowledge grew wider and wider; those who governed could not understand those who thought, and those who wanted to know could not understand those who knew. In the midst of unprecedented learning popular ignorance flourished, and chose its exemplars to rule the great cities of the world; in the midst of sciences endowed and enthroned as never before, new religions were born every day, and old superstitions recaptured the ground they had lost. The common man found himself forced to choose between a scientific priesthood mumbling unintelligible pessimism, and a theological priesthood mumbling incredible hopes.
... For if knowledge becomes too great for communication it would degenerate into scholasticism, and the weak acceptance of authority; mankind would slip into a new age of faith, worshipping at a respectful distance its new priests, and civilization, which had hoped to raise itself upon education disseminated far and wide, would be left precariously based upon a technical erudition that had become the monopoly of an esoteric class monastically isolated from the world by the high birth rate of terminology...
.... Let us not, then, be ashamed of teaching the people. Those jealous ones who would guard their knowledge from the world have only themselves to blame if their exclusiveness and their barbarous terminology have led the world to seek in books, in lectures, and in adult education, the instruction which they themselves have failed to give. Let them be grateful that their halting efforts are aided by amateurs who love life enough to let it humanize their teaching."
- Will Durant, preface to the 2nd ed, Story of Philosophy
i spoke to my bro just last week and he asked me about school ;) i of course went on a spiel and yapped non stop for maybe 30 mins hehe before ending with a desperate i-need-help for assignments pleas. he, of course laughed at them and it distinctly sounded maniacally gleeful (dun ask me to mimic it pls) and said i should ask shikino to help me (tolak balak) and shikino (his wifey) smsed this morning and agreed to help tutor me!! *yeay* yes! i now have the 2 brainiacs to help me mueheheheh...
*eyesglazeddejavu*
We're just a year apart you see and once we had to 'coincidently' sit for o'levels in the same year together :p it was late evening and i think it was my day off from work and we decided to study together (more of a show for my dad i think! or was it the exams the next day?? :P) and so we sat on the dining table (bo, i can't remember how the table looks like :( ) to work on our 10 year series. it started off fine and i was happy that we were doing something that made our dad very happy and of course we scored major points that is until i looked through my e-math 10 year series questions and started to cry. i tried to laugh my tears away but it got worst and i started bawling! it was a mess of snorts cum giggles, mixed with a wee bit of tears and snot and then i did the pulling-out-my-hair sequence, going into spasms and slump over book scene; much to the amusement and astonishment of my said bro.
me: ahahahha *sobchoke* ahahawaaaaaaah~ *sobsobsniff*
bobby: eh?! *tryingveryhardtolookshocked* what's wrong with you? da giler ker?
me: aku tak tau buat ah benda nie!! *panicdistressedcrazy*
bobby: aper jer! kena belajar abeh nangis *manicgleefullaugh*
me: *sobers* :P~ panic wot!
eversince then he never passed over an opporturnity to relate that incident to anyone! so i learnt (yeah right) to never wait till the last minute to study for exams, and i still don't understand how my bro could sail pass o'levels and actually score distinctions just by squatting and rolling about his bed studying just before exams (tak fair!!). i tried but didn't work bah! and we share like the same genes!!
well, thank you shikinbo for the much needed support and the inspiration (memories too! haha) both of you provided. may the optimist in me prevail and i'd be able to get past writting argumentatively and understand the theories bla bla cconcepts bla bla AND most importantly able to form resolutions in prefect grammar lar aper kejadah lar ehk...*poohkananpoohkiri* and i promise not to quote p. ramlee in my essays :D
stay sane,
amyemeelea
1 comment:
*poohkananpoohkiri*
I'm just really glad you didn't stop short at "ki" for the phrase above. That would have been tragic.
On an unrelated note (which I don't think matters to anyone else but me), I won't be updating anything on any of my blogs for a while 'coz my dear grandmother is very ill.
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