True Wisdom

How people conceive ideas and actions as wise or ignorant is culturally determined, ideologically imposed, or driven by power. Science often subserves social trends instead of guiding them. If one understands this, one would know that wisdom and ignorance are not like light and darkness. Ignorance is not the absence of wisdom; both have their respective social foundations, nurturing ecologies, and they coexist. They inhabit the same space. As there is nothing intrinsically worthwhile or worthless about either, they are not only in a conflictual relationship of domination and defiance but also in one of cooperation and co-option.

What is the takeaway from this predicament? True wisdom begins with self-scrutiny—examining all ideas with empathy, and then taking a stand, only if required. One who calls another foolish may themselves be mistaken, merely asserting a position of superiority. Wisdom is not about dismissing someone as a fool or something as foolish, but about uncovering the causes and conditions that place people in such states. True wisdom does not allow people to become devils, thereby forcing good people into mortal combat with them later. That is not wisdom. Wisdom lies in preventing evil, not in fighting it.

The message: If you are truly wise, you do not find a fool.

— Niraj Kumar Jha

Ignorance

Ignorance is not about speechlessness or inaction. Rather, it is about disproportionate verbosity, discourses, and activism.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Do we need to bother about ignorance?

Many wise people hold that ignorance is our biggest problem. But the reality is that ignorance or the lack of knowledge is the least menacing compared to the other problems in the realm of epistemology. I would list them in the order of harm they cause, the most harmful comes first. 

1. Doctored knowledge - Ideologies, in its two variants – ecclesiastical and temporal, which substitute knowledges with make-believes or pseudo-reasoning, perpetuating themselves on the strength of indoctrination. These fanciful ideas find ready adherents among the vulnerable people or the dimwits.

2. Illusion of knowledge – Indoctrinated or ill educated persons as a result of bad education have this affliction. A brush with some knowledge sources gives such illusion too. And on the other end, there are people who are very well-read but in the absence of sufficient and correct training they are unable to handle the inputs they get. 

3. Lack of knowledge – This is the third category. People are not educated, have no access to knowledge-sources. They may seemingly talk inane things. But it is necessary to qualify this position. Knowledge is stratum related. What may be inanity for you is effective wisdom for some. 

I am a case of the third category but without the benefit of the caveat I have added. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

I think ...

I think that I should also think and talk about much needed economic turnaround, cultural renaissance, intellectual surge, social equity and security. I should also share thoughts on the needs and ways of and hindrances to economic reforms, educational renovation, justice, harmony and the freest possible atmosphere for debate. I have also made this a serious issue to train and equip my mind for reflecting on complex issues. I do need to resolve that I must rise above the binary vision of the things around. I know that I don't know things and finality defies everything. The crises which torment us, must be met squarely and with force but that must not consume us as a creative, responsive and responsible people . And a fight is never to the finish. A fight always paves the way for a new beginning, a fresh engagement, which does demand some residual goodwill for our own good. I don't think that I should ever forget the abysmal poverty and indignities common folks have to bear around me. I also must not forget that I am a member of the professoriat and I don't have the privilege of flaunting my ignorance.

- Niraj Kumar Jha