After reading this, you should know:
Knowledge is power, conscience is the direction
Culture is a noble thing that can inspire our emotions. People are generally not cold-hearted, but full of love and poetic vision of the world.
But today, our education is more about teaching knowledge, technology, and expertise, but lacks culture. We have cultivated many refined egoists and many highly educated barbarians.
There is a famous saying: Knowledge is power. Chinese people are familiar with this sentence and agree with it very much. But what I want to tell you today is that although knowledge is indeed important, knowledge also has limitations, and conscience is our direction.
Don’t use trivial knowledge to cut your life into pieces.
Knowledge is infinite, but life is limited. Zhuangzi once said: "My life also has a limit, but my knowledge has no limit. If I have a limit, I will follow the limitless." If we use our limited life to pursue the infinite knowledge contained in the infinite world, our life will be wasted.
When knowledge is not systematic, it is useless and just fragments. There was once a set of Chinese studies questions for a Chinese studies knowledge competition, and the editor wanted me to review them. I watched it for 5 minutes, and I can judge it in 6 words: boring, boring, and useless.
For example, one question asked: In which era in Chinese history were eunuchs allowed to marry? This is very serious knowledge. If you specialize in studying eunuchs and understand their living conditions, psychological state, and their status, influence, and role in Chinese history, you will become an amazing expert. But if your main energy is not here, such fragments of knowledge will be of no use to you.
Another question: When were carrots introduced to China? If you can turn it into systematic knowledge for analysis and research, it is meaningful. If not, such fragments of knowledge may have negative consequences. He knows more than others, so he may wait for others to ask questions every day, and even order carrots every time he and his friends eat. Others enjoy the food, but he only waits for one question. This carrot tied him to death for the rest of his life.
The German philosopher Nietzsche wrote an article called "Why Am I So Smart". His conclusion is just one sentence: The reason why I am so smart is because I never waste energy on unnecessary things.
There is too much useless knowledge in life. For example, many people care about a certain star's favorite color, what his zodiac sign is, how many times he has been married, and how many times he has been divorced. When a person spends his energy in these places, he may gain knowledge and be able to chat with people at the dinner table, but he will become particularly trivial.
I once wrote an article titled "Beware of Knowledge". The main point is that our lives are inherently impossible to possess infinite knowledge. What is even more sad is that boring knowledge will make life boring, and trivial knowledge will make personality trivial or even obscene.
Xunzi once proposed the identification of knowledge. He said that some knowledge is boring, useless, and uninteresting. He has a judgment about such knowledge, which is "if you don't know it, it does no harm to you and you are a gentleman; if you know it, it does no harm to you and you are a villain." Some knowledge adds nothing to your life, so why waste energy and time on it?
No knowledge can be tolerated, no conscience cannot be tolerated.
There is an article in "Liezi" called "Two Children Debate on the Sun", which everyone should have read. Two children debated whether the sun is closer to us in the morning or at noon. Both people have basis for saying that morning is closer because the sun is stronger in the morning than at noon; they say that noon is closer because the sun at noon is hotter than in the morning.
Confucius lived a really stressful life. He was almost the "Google" and "Baidu" of that time. Everyone went to him if they had any questions. The two children asked Confucius, but Confucius could not judge. So the author used the tone of a child to ridicule Confucius: "Who said you know a lot?" The author probably thought that as long as he denied that Confucius had a lot of knowledge, he would deny the value of Confucius.
This idea is obviously wrong.
In the examination room of life knowledge, who can stand at the end? Let me make a bet with you today. I can come up with a set of 100-point knowledge questions, each with a standard answer, but I can make everyone here get zero points. On the other hand, you can also give me 100-point knowledge questions so that I don’t get a single point.
For example, there was a question in Fudan University’s independent enrollment, and the teacher made a request to the students: "You ask me a question now, and it must meet two conditions. The first is that I cannot answer it, and the second is that I cannot answer it." You must have a standard answer. "Many people say this question is too scary, but I think it is very good. Because it tells us that in the examination room of knowledge, no one can stand at the end. A smart student immediately asked: "Teacher, do you know the name of my grandfather?"
If we want to calculate the total amount of knowledge, I believe that the total amount of knowledge among those here today exceeds that of Confucius. . For example, I can ask questions on computers, physics, English, mathematics, etc. Confucius will definitely not be able to answer you.
But are we higher than Confucius? This brings us to another question: what determines Confucius’ realm is not the total amount of knowledge, but something else. Confucius himself said long ago: "Do I know anything? I am ignorant." Do I have knowledge? No, there isn't. Socrates also once said: "The thing I know more than others is that I know that I am ignorant."
They are not being modest when they say this, but they are just telling the truth. Facing the infinity of the world, the knowledge we have in our short lives can be ignored. Therefore, we should allow our own ignorance and tolerate the ignorance of others.
But there is a situation that cannot be tolerated. What is it? Just have no conscience.
Value judgments are more important than factual judgments
No knowledge can be tolerated, and no conscience cannot be tolerated. When we encounter standardized test papers, there is no problem if we don’t answer well, but they involve judgments of conscience, right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness. If there is a problem, it will be a big problem.
I tell you a story. A father discovered that his 15-year-old daughter was not at home and left a letter that read:
"Dear Mom and Dad, Randy and I eloped today. Randy is a very unique person. , with all kinds of tattoos on his body. He is only 42 years old. He is not old, right? I will live with him in the forest. Of course, it is not just him and me. Randy also has several other women, but I am not Don't mind. We will grow marijuana, and besides smoking it ourselves, we can also sell it to friends. I also hope that we will have many children in that place, and in the process, I also hope that medical technology will make great progress. AIDS can be cured."
After reading this, my father collapsed. However, he found that there was another sentence at the bottom: "Unfinished, please look at the back."
The back said: "Dad, what is said on that page is not true. The truth is that I am The midterm exam papers are in the drawer at the classmate's house next door. You open them and sign them. The reason why I am writing this letter is to tell you that there are worse things in the world than failing to answer the papers well. Please type them for me now. Call me and tell me that I can go home safely."
This letter shows that a person can make mistakes on the knowledge test paper, even more than once, but on the issue of conscience, he can make a mistake once. , we will be beyond redemption. Therefore, what is more important than factual judgment is value judgment.
One of the problems in Chinese society today is the lack of judgment. One problem with Chinese education is the lack of cultural literacy. For example, in order to boycott Japanese goods, many young people took to the streets and smashed the cars of compatriots, and even harmed their bodies. They are passionate and think they are patriotic, but in fact they are "impeding the country."
Why would a person with good patriotic enthusiasm do something that damages the image of the Chinese people? What are they missing? Conscience.
Knowledge is power, but I want to tell everyone that conscience is the direction. We often say that those who fall behind will be beaten, and I would like to tell everyone that those who are barbaric will also be beaten.