Libraries: a cave where genius abides

coberst · 11-10-2007, 02:44 AM

Libraries: a cave where genius abides

If you find no library card in your wallet or purse you are not a self-learner. You are at best a dilettante, a dabbler in knowledge.

A self-learner has a multitude of clamoring questions, in a multitude of domains of knowledge, seeking answers. To discover the nature of reality and the answers to these questions one must have access to a library of books.

Most colleges have a ‘Friend of the Library’ card, which, for a small annual fee, will allow anyone to borrow books from that library.

After schooling is over the experience of learning begins. I think that the first step toward becoming a self-actualizing self-learner is to acquire at least one library card.

Public libraries are not just for kids on field trips.
Public libraries are so much more than a book storage facility.
Public libraries are places where people from all walks of life are welcome.
Public libraries are wonder-filled places where people of ignorance can find genius, a place where the homeless can find shelter and where the educated can find inspiration.
Public libraries smell like knowledge and taste like wisdom.
Public libraries are truly beautiful from the inside out.
Visiting public libraries often and for long periods of time is a modern form of respecting our elders.
Humanity is summed up in the content of the written word which can be found in a public library near you.
To study the masters from within a public library is a humbling and awe-inspiring experience for some people.

The line I used to entice my girlfriend into becoming my wife; "My library card has recently been renewed."
-Savant

What’s in your wallet?

Katczinsky · 11-10-2007, 09:32 AM

Yet, according to the authors of the Patriot Act, libraries are caves were terrorists abide. Which makes sense, because their worst enemy is informed dissent as opposed to manufactured consent.

I agree with everything you said above, but apart from the pursuit of knowledge, libraries are instrumental in the maintaining of a democratic society. Incidentally, it is conformity in ignorance, not bearded Muslims in caves half way across the world, that is undermining our democracy and cherished freedoms.

In a democratic society, knowledge isn't just power, attaining it is moral (and willful ignorance is immoral).

pensacola_niceman · 11-10-2007, 09:51 AM

Who needs libraries when you now have the internet as a source of knowledge and reliable information?

Katczinsky · 11-10-2007, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pensacola_niceman

Who needs libraries when you now have the internet as a source of knowledge and reliable information?

Information on the internet is largely unreliable, and superficial at best.

coberst · 11-10-2007, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katczinsky

Yet, according to the authors of the Patriot Act, libraries are caves were terrorists abide. Which makes sense, because their worst enemy is informed dissent as opposed to manufactured consent.

I agree with everything you said above, but apart from the pursuit of knowledge, libraries are instrumental in the maintaining of a democratic society. Incidentally, it is conformity in ignorance, not bearded Muslims in caves half way across the world, that is undermining our democracy and cherished freedoms.

In a democratic society, knowledge isn't just power, attaining it is moral (and willful ignorance is immoral).

It appears that we think alike and perhaps we might be of approximately the same age.

I am a retired engineer with some formal education and twenty five years of self-learning. I began the self-learning experience while in my mid-forties. I had no goal in mind; I was just following my intellectual curiosity in whatever direction it led me. This hobby, self-learning, has become very important to me. I have bounced around from one hobby to another but have always been enticed back by the excitement I have discovered in this learning process. I label myself as a September Scholar because I began the process at mid-life and because my quest is disinterested knowledge.

For several years I have been posting on various Internet discussion forums in an effort to present important ideas to the readers of those forums in the hope that they might become curious about these ideas and thus to begin a self-actualizing self-learning process of their own.

It is my opinion that our society must become significantly more intellectually sophisticated than it is now. I think that if more citizens were to become self-actualizing self-learners that our society might accomplish this very important intellectual improvement.

I continually seek others who might be interested in joining in this effort of trying to enlighten young people into developing an intellectual life. If that sounds interesting you might give it consideration.

Quote: "All men, like all nations, are tested twice in the moral realm: first by what they do, then by what they make of what they do. The condition of guilt, a sense of one's own guilt, denotes a kind of second chance. Men are, as if by a kind of grace, given a chance to repay to the living that it is they find themselves owing the dead."
"Coming to Terms with Vietnam," by Peter Marin, Harpers, Dec. 1980.

pensacola_niceman · 11-10-2007, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katczinsky

Information on the internet is largely unreliable, and superficial at best.

Whatever do you mean? I found proof that the world is flat via the internet.

Katczinsky · 11-10-2007, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coberst

It appears that we think alike and perhaps we might be of approximately the same age.

I am a retired engineer with some formal education and twenty five years of self-learning. I began the self-learning experience while in my mid-forties. I had no goal in mind; I was just following my intellectual curiosity in whatever direction it led me. This hobby, self-learning, has become very important to me. I have bounced around from one hobby to another but have always been enticed back by the excitement I have discovered in this learning process. I label myself as a September Scholar because I began the process at mid-life and because my quest is disinterested knowledge.

I am glad to see that we might think alike. However, I doubt I can associate with a 'September Scholar' in age; I am only a freshman in college!

No doubt you are further down that path to enlightenment than I.

Quote:

For several years I have been posting on various Internet discussion forums in an effort to present important ideas to the readers of those forums in the hope that they might become curious about these ideas and thus to begin a self-actualizing self-learning process of their own.

It is my opinion that our society must become significantly more intellectually sophisticated than it is now. I think that if more citizens were to become self-actualizing self-learners that our society might accomplish this very important intellectual improvement.

I continually seek others who might be interested in joining in this effort of trying to enlighten young people into developing an intellectual life. If that sounds interesting you might give it consideration.

I agree, and perhaps as a young person myself, I could reach other young people in a unique way. However, I can't help but notice the willful conservatism and conformity in ignorance among my friends and peers. Perhaps that is due to various forces, and I personally believe institutions are the blame; most notably our education system and the media. The former kills creativity and curiosity, and the latter grooms this instilled conservatism with superficial pleasures.

CrazyFlamingos · 11-10-2007, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katczinsky

I agree, and perhaps as a young person myself, I could reach other young people in a unique way. However, I can't help but notice the willful conservatism and conformity in ignorance among my friends and peers. Perhaps that is due to various forces, and I personally believe institutions are the blame; most notably our education system and the media. The former kills creativity and curiosity, and the latter grooms this instilled conservatism with superficial pleasures.

Kat, from the time I was in school myself, I have lamented the fact that most education is for the sake of how to make a living with little or no attention directed toward how to live.

Were it up to me the goal of every student would be to follow in the steps of Thomas Jefferson and his peers in their educational efforts. One must learn to make a living to feed the stomach. But one should also have knowledge of a myriad of subjects which are devoid of any obvious practical value in order to feed the soul.

Unfortunately that was a rare attitude amongst "educators" when I was young and I fear that it is even more rare today.

CrazyFlamingos · 11-10-2007, 01:39 PM

I spent a good portion of my life working in libraries and I couldn't agree more.