Thinking and Learning

Learning, thinking, reality, and humans versus sub-humans like monkeys and the rest.

“To learn without thinking is stultifying; to think without learning is dangerous.”

Confucius

I came across the above quote in a book I’m trying to digest, Disputers of the TAO, Philosophical Argument in Ancient China (A.C. Graham, Open Court Publishing Company 1989, p. 10).

The quote set off a series of explosions in my mind. That’s why I am sitting in front of a laptop, trying to do some damage control. I’m typing fast and furiously, with no particular order in mind, hence cohesiveness will be lacking.

Thinking is something I love to do, especially in my old age when death is near and vitality is draining away with each passing day. I fancy that I am still able to think with lucidity and have no problems searching for words-- not yet-- to express what I think. This delusion gives me comfort and a sense of pride, not smugness born out of ignorance and stubbornness.

I like to think of weighty matters that often come back to the nature of thinking itself. I like to get as close to reality as I can since I find that humans do have the tendency to lie to me, to keep me in the dark, to make me a slave, intellectually. Thus, I think of issues such as God and Devil, heaven and hell, good and evil, true patriotism and mere posturing, courage and cowardice, generosity and stinginess, love and hate, reality and illusion, and humans versus sub-humans like monkeys and the rest. Yes, I do think in dualism. What’s so wrong about that? That’s the first step in approaching reality. We learn by comparing and contrasting. And the world seems to operate in pairs. However, I do recognize that there’s unity in plurality.

Thinking without learning is dangerous. That’s why I respect facts and evidence and I am more than willing and happy to admit that I am wrong when somebody points out the errors of my ways. Nobody knows everything.

I respect those humans who are willing to learn, to undertake the journey from ignorance to understanding, from darkness to light. Such a journey helps true humans to differentiate themselves from sub-humans like monkeys and the rest, to distinguish between live concert and Memorex, true music and mere noise, to enjoy and appreciate true culture instead of triviality and banality.

I would like to end this rambling meditation with the words of Chris Hedges in Empire of Illusion, words that apply not only to the United States, but also to Vietnam and the microcosm called the Mitchong Forum.

“The more we sever ourselves from a literate, print-based world—a world of complexity and nuance, a world of ideas---for one informed by comforting, reassuring images, fantasies, slogans…, the more we implode. We ask, like the wrestling fans or those who confuse love with pornography, to be fed lies. We demand lies. The skillfully manufactured images and slogans that flood the airwaves and infect our political discourse mask reality. And we do not protest. The lonely Cassandras who speak the truth about our misguided imperial wars, the global economic meltdown, and the imminent danger of multiple pollutions that are destroying the ecosystem that sustains the human species, are drowned out by arenas full of fans chanting “Slut! Slut! Slut!” or television audiences chanting ‘Jer-ry! Jer-ry! Jer-ry!” The worse reality becomes, the less a beleaguered population wants to hear about it and the more it distracts itself with squalid pseudo-events of celebrity breakdowns, gossip, and trivia. These are the debauched revels of a dying culture.

A culture that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion dies. And we are dying now.”

What have we been really doing for Vietnam, the land of our birth where the graves of our ancestors are located, the land which is being taken piece-by-piece by the Chinese, besides talking and posturing? Self-preservation is understandable, but not laudable. Even animals know something about dying for and protecting the group. Even animals know something about tribalism. Have we, the cream of the crop, the more “educated” and informed Vietnamese, really lost all our natural feelings of patriotism, of caring, of taking responsibility? Are we willing to stand by idly and watch the Chinese take over Vietnam and then persecute and kill our fellow Vietnamese as they are doing right now to the fishermen? I know some of us are willing to be the modern day Trần Ích Tắc, Lê Chiêu Thống, and Tôn Thọ Tường, but I can’t believe most of us have no hearts for Vietnam. That’s why I am much heartened to see anh Nguyễn Hùng sticking his neck out and doing something useful with his time on this planet instead of indulging in triviality and banality and feeling smug about it. That’s why I feel honored to stand behind him and extend to him my trembling hand.

Wissai
October 23, 2009
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