Time Is Not Just A Slave Master

To be silent the whole day, see no newspaper, hear no radio, listen to no gossip, be thoroughly and completely lazy, thoroughly and completely indifferent to the fate of the world is the finest medicine a man can give himself. ~Henry Miller

The world of information at our fingertips is an incredible thing. First, we had dictionaries and encyclopedias. Then almanacs. Then public libraries a plenty and index cards. Finally the internet. And now, finally, finally, AI and tools like ChatGPT that “know it all” and can present it to us, even do it for us (almost wrote “to us”).

However, I have always had the feeling that we aren’t getting more intelligent. We are just becoming more efficient - are kind of “confusing ourselves to death” to paraphrase Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves To Death”.

This video I created from a talk by Maryanne Wolf makes a strong point that all the information in the world won’t ever become wisdom unless we allow ourselves the time to reflect on it, digest it, use it to make analogies … in a word, make it our own. Time is key.

But our busy world doesn’t allow for that. It’s all about efficiency. It’s all about career advancement. It’s all about the cosmetic, “seeming smart”. We all lose, our society loses through this process and dynamic. We have so many experts out there, so many “degreed” but very few that are wise. Why? They don’t allow themselves the time to think, to process and make knowledge personal (I’m referencing Polyani here - his book Personal Knowledge is a classic in this area of tacit knowing).

I’ve seen the process operating in myself. I’ve been almost helpless to stop it. I try but the screen with 57 channels and nothing on beckons, flickers. The internet says “look it up - don’t think about it.” My books on my shelf have become lonely - I’ve let our relationship rot while I have gone out with fancy named peeps, glittering under YouTube lit lights.

“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”

―T.S. Eliot,The Rock

In education, we need to slow down. Allow our students to savor the information, make it their own, suck on it, change it, transform it. Same too in our lives. We are losing something before even knowing it is too late.

I think Ms. Wolf is on to something. Our society, our democracy depends on our relationship to information, the blossoming of intelligence through the time to discern truth. However, our world of material consumption, of entertainments, of passive flow through life - it ill prepares us to be citizens, to see beauty, to find our way to wisdom.

I’m going to read some Maryanne Wolf this week. Instead of Youtubing her. You should to. She’s very accessible - Proust and The Squid is wonderful.

Find here whole talk here. My video is also on my YouTube channel - please subscribe and support my efforts to keep intelligent discussion alive!