After the divide on religion, caste, and every other thing I can think of, we have another one in our hand. "The Well read' and 'The worth- less' . This for once is not a gift of the politicians or the evil doers. This in fact is a class divide which SOME of the well read have brought in to make themselves look different in this race of being different from everyone else.
Many talk of history as they read it in books and quote me on it. Some even talk of psychology and philosophy. I stay mum. Many come and talk of political condition and talk of solutions like they knew the problem first hand and they are going to do anything about it . Not in a decade , I say.Dont take me wrong
for I say so not to by any means take the credit off someone who has read to know things better than most of the others. But, then for all I know, I wouldnt know what you are about if I read your biography. Nor would I know about your problems the way they were even if you yourself told me about it , but yes I too can give my solutions for those (just like the well-read think they can) and trust me there would be nothing more disgraceful than that.To belittle everyone around to make yourself look better, or to make everything black and white because you think you know enough .Its the same like you telling another person of a problem and that other person telling you of how he knows everything about the problem and how he can solve it , all because he knows it well or so to say has read about it in history books.Yes, things would be different if the other person instead of talking of knowing theproblem and sollution well would have solved it, which would have been great.If you were honest to yourself for a split second,with your ego put to rest for a moment , you wouldnt do anything but agree.
People(The well read) say, I am not well read and that I dont know much about things for them to care about my opinions. Well, they know even less about me for me to care about how they think of my opinions. You read 10 books about Kashmir and talk of what is the solution to the problems of the people there?Oh sorry, 50 books maybe.Tell you what, you have a problem then, and I know the solution to it. Shed off your infalted ego and look beyond books and what you have read. For that is not what defines you.That is not what makes your charachter. And let me know if the last two sentences angered you in any way. We shall then discuss of how well I know you for commenting on you and how well you know about things that you think you can comment on. Commenting was not a problem ever , but to comment with such conviction as that is the only truth ? And to bash around anyone and everyone who does not agree? And yes then to quote of history and label yourself well read? Sure, you might have read a lot and know a lot more. Everyone respects knowledge and so shall I, for good. Then again, if it is all about creating a special class of a kind and make yourself feel better about having read or think too high of yourself for same, I shall consider you no better than any other attention seeking person.
To be honest, no one who ever did anything did so by shunning everyone around while talking of oneself as the supreme source of intellect. Epistemology has its own ways and so does everthing else. You have an opinion , share it. And if you are not doing anything but sharing opinions, take others(the not well read as you might call them) on the same scale. For you know no better than them. The false sense of awareness that reading a lot of books can give, and the fact that it might just make you feel better about yourself , of being different from others, is overwhelming and you are just as ordinary as anyone else can be, to not to be able to fight it out.
For those who have read a lot and know a lot about a lot more things than I have, have all my respect.For those who call themselves well read and think of others as fools , who dont have a say unless they say the same as the 'well read', have my sympathies.
And many shall have both in appropriate proportion.
-Moral of the story-
Do not read a lot for it gives you a false sense of awareness and along with it the myth about yourself of knowing things too well. All this unless you are strong enough to fight that false sense of know-it-all.
