I’ve been harbouring a slightly anti-knowledge view for the last few years. Not against the idea itself, but against what could be termed ‘The Cult of Knowledge’.
I define this as the idea that we should know everything, that to openly confess ignorance is frowned upon. Not to know is intimated as failure, and there is a feeling that we should have all the facts to hand.
It has the result that people are frightened to ask questions, for fear of seeming foolish. I’ve seen this in action throughout my life, in school, college and also at work. I’ve seen people seem frozen with the seeming embarrassment of not knowing, but in reality it’s better to admit this than to carry on under false pretences. I’ve seen managers who expect their staff to have encyclopaedic knowledge of subjects they rarely deal with, and also expect them to waste their time memorising this stuff when a perfectly good reference exists.
Then we have people who consider a particular pet methodology or system (this is prevalent amongst the geek community), if you haven’t heard of it then woe betide you! Yet, one could easily level the charge back: “I was doing quite well without this, I have many calls on my time, why should I spend it on this?”
It seems as if it could be an ego trip, to expect that either you should be able to command encyclopaedic knowledge but also a way of putting down others when they don’t know, a way to stoke a sense of superiority perhaps?
Speaking personally, having had exposure to Taoist thought on the matter, I find the whole notion quite ridiculous.
Chuang-Tzu [1] is quite explicit, “On Levelling all things”:
“For the Tao which is manifest is not Tao. Speech which argues falls short of its aim. Kindness which has fixed objects loses its scope. Integrity which is obvious is not believed in. Courage which pushes itself forward never accomplishes anything. These five are, as it were, round (mellow) with a strong bias towards squareness (sharpness). Therefore that knowledge which stops at what it does not know, is the highest knowledge.”
The Tao Te Ching [2] has it’s own say in Chapter 48:
“Pursue knowledge, daily gain
Pursue Tao, daily loss
Loss and more loss
Until one reaches unattached action
With unattached action, there is nothing one cannot doTake the world by constantly applying non-interference
The one who interferes is not qualified to take the world”
I prefer to honestly acknowledge that I don’t have all the answers, but if it’s needed, then I’m prepared to make the effort to find out. It’s not the accumulation of knowledge we should value, but the ability to discover and apply knowledge, this knowledge is worthless without the skills that surround it.
Creative Commons Acknowledgement.
The bookshelf image is by Babblingdweeb and is licensed under by-nc-nd.
References.
[1]. http://mindgazer.org/tao/chtzu_level.htm
[2]. Derek Lin Translation at http://www.truetao.org/ttc/complete.htm
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