enlightenment, unlearning and the Cheshire cat

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“The uninformed must improve their deficit, or die.”

Cheshire Cat

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“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ”

Alvin Toffler

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I have used Thomas Jefferson, Gandhi, Winston Churchill and a variety of other really smart luminaries as spokespeople for enlightened conflict and curiosity and fighting ignorance and what  person needs to do in order to be successful. Today I use Alvin Toffler combined with, well, the Cheshire Cat (you may have missed his wisdom because I think he disappeared right as he said the smart thing).

In Wonderland, if you sought wisdom, the queen sought to take off your head. On the other hand wisdom was the only way to keep your head.

Whew.

Now there is some conflict to deal with. Wisdom is gained through progress, learning & unlearned, and yet that desire for progress can kill you. Conversely, being uninformed, or just as bad, stagnant in your thinking & learning, is truly a type of death as you will most likely get run over by everyone else learning.

Now. The latter may end up being the slow death of ignorance, but it is death in the end. Because being uninformed means you get left behind (or someone who is moving decides to cut off your head like the Queen in Wonderland).

I am not going to waste a lot of words on a topic I have written a lot about. Fighting ignorance. Feeding your curiosity. Continuously learning. Continuously improving your deficit. Continuously unlearning.

Oh. Yeah. Even unlearning to learn (which is really what I believe the Cheshire cat is truly talking about) is an important path to living a full Life. We would be silly if we did not recognize we all have a knowledge deficit. Similar to your own household balance sheet if you go too far in debt it is very very difficult to get out of debt and a stable base. More importantly, if you don’t solve your intellectual deficit, you just die in society. You will get passed by those who keep growing. Simply put: knowledge is power – knowledge has a value – knowledge is progress.

Bottom line.

Being uninformed is silly. And, frankly, being uninformed decreases your value … and value in Life. It, well, increases your deficit. It makes you one of the illiterate of the 21st century.

Look.

With all available to us there is no excuse for remaining uninformed. No excuse for maintaining your existing deficit. Oh. That is, of course, you seek to not live a high value Life. I guess it just means you have decided to die intellectually. Or, as the Cheshire Cat does, disappear from Life.