The Polish saying "Człowiek całe życie się uczy, ale i tak głupi umiera" (A person learns throughout their entire life, but still dies stupid) is either a deeply fatalistic approach to life and learning or else is brutally true. I'm a great believer (as was my father) in life-long learning; to do so you need one characteristic - you need to be curious. You need to really want to find out. Immersion in knowledge has never been easier. Wikipedia is a wonderful benefit to mankind; YouTube hosts many great scientific and academic explainers' podcasts. Lifelong learning has never been easier.
Time spent watching TV series or sport is, according to me, time generally wasted, that can be put to better use pushing forward the boundaries of one's knowledge. Making better use of the potential of one's brain. To unravel a world that seems to get increasingly complex the more one learns about it.
We live in a highly specialised world driven by science and technology. On our own, we'd soon perish. In small post-apocalyptic groups, we could organise ourselves around groups of hunters and foragers, and in time rebuild agriculture and create some form of rudimentary construction industry. Philosophers, historians and theologists would be of less value to society than builders, butchers or bakers. The search for understanding would not be a priority; survival would.
I write these words as the world learns of the horror of Bucha. Evil unleashed because of the nationalistic ideology of yet another madman, unrestrained by democratic checks and balances, a nation poisoned by a servile media. The fact that here, in Europe, in the 21st century, such inhuman brutality can occur suggests that mankind is incapable of learning. Here I am writing about consciousness, qualia memory, the Infinite and Eternal, the unfolding Universe - and across the border marauding rapists and murderers are terrorising innocent people. All because one nation considers itself superior to another, one nation has allowed itself to buy into a noxious myth, while neighbouring states lived for decades with the delusion that you can deal with a mad thug.
And yet we search, we seek, we continue to strive to understand. When and how this war will end is unknown to anyone right now. We can but pray, meditate for a just and lasting peace. And a strong signal for other would-be conquerors of other people's land that this is not the way forward. Can we sway history with good intentions? It would be wonderful if we could.
We have been here before. Why do we have to keep coming back this way? Why are we not learning as a species?
This time last year:
Lent, the summing up
This time two years ago:
Religion, Society and the Individual
This time six years ago:
Qualia - the experience of being conscious
This time seven years ago:
Analysing the success of Lidl
This time eight years ago:
Should schools be teaching language - or Languages?
This time nine years ago:
Ulica Karczunkowska's pavement deficit
This time ten years ago:
Architectural detail from Edinburgh
This time 11 years ago:
Spring explodes in Jeziorki
This time 12 years ago:
Along the way for Warsaw's southern bypass
This time 13 years ago:
Quintessential Warsaw vista
This time 14 years ago:
Jeziorki on Google Earth
This time 15 years ago:
Okęcie airport, our near neighbour
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