Funke Funke Wisdom

I'm growing cynical in my pseudo-old age.  I look around, and I meet people, and I do these things regardless of where I go.  And I find lots of people who think they are a lot smarter and wiser than they are. 

It's frustrating, and annoying.  Often, I'm forced to have conversations with these people.  Sometimes, I'm even forced to work with them.  They're everywhere. 

A few weeks ago, some random hippie woman started talking to me at a bar.  Naturally, she found out I was American and decided to 'educate' me.  For instance, did any of you know that Botswana was the only African nation not to be colonized?  No?  Me either.  I told the woman that I'm pretty sure Ethiopia was the only African country that wasn't colonized.  She wasn't having it. 

She then proceeded to tell me how it was reflected in the personality of Botswanans, how they were so independent and confident, etc.  The final 15 minutes of time she spent talking to me, I just half-listened and thought about football. 

When I got home, I had the following exchange with Bende:

Jide: "That was really annoying."

Bende: "Was she hitting on you?"

Jide: "I don't think so.  She was just saying all this bullshit.  Did you know that Botswana was the only African country not to be colonized?"

Bende: "I thought it was Ethiopia."

Jide: "Funny -- that's exactly what I said.  But she was convinced it was Botswana.  Who colonized Bostswana?"

Bende: "The British."

Jide: "What was Botswana's colonial name again?"

Bende: "Bechuanaland."

Jide: "That rings a bell."

This is a blatant example.  Most people I talk to are smarter than this cretin was, but they think they carry a lot more wisdom and knowledge than they do.  I guess I'd better define my terms:

To me, knowledge consists of the amount of information a person can remember and synthesize.  Someone who has memorized an entire dictionary has a lot of knowledge.  On the other hand, an African who is convinced that a neighboring country has never been colonized probably hasn't accumulated much knowledge.  Sadly, knowledge is almost useless without...

...wisdom, which is the application of knowledge.  It is a combination of skill, willpower and "common sense."  To use a D&D example, most people know that smoking is bad for you, and they don't want to die an unpleasant smoker's death of emphysema/cancer.  However, it takes wisdom to apply that knowledge and stop smoking.  You can know that crossing the street without looking, or driving without wearing a seat belt is dangerous.  It takes wisdom to actually apply that knowledge.

Another example of wisdom is self-reflection.  Without this, it's hard to gain wisdom.  To be wise, a person has to be aware of how they relate to people, how their environment relates with them, and what makes them tick.  Without this awareness, it's almost impossible to be wise.  Wisdom is accepting personal limitations, accepting the messages your environment is sending, and being able to take multiple messages and viewpoints away from conversations and experiences.  It involves being empathetic. 

The reason I bring this up is that many people I've met, both at home and abroad, lack anything above basic knowledge or basic wisdom.  They allow themselves to be manipulated by their environment -- not just on a physical or practical level, but psychologically.  They don't challenge themselves as vigorously as they challenge others.  They go to school, but they don't become wiser for the experience.  They travel, but they don't really learn about where they've been beyond a superficial level.  They look, but they don't see.  They hear, but they don't listen. 

I've met several Americans who know almost nothing about Africa, or anywhere besides North American and the Middle East.  That's just a simple lack of knowledge.   Sometimes, it reflects a lack of desire to acquire new knowledge, which could be considered unwise.  But most of the time it's a simple matter of exposure.

Even worse, I've met non-Americans who have been to America but didn't seem to pick up any information.  They've travelled, but all their travels helped them to do was solidify their existing stereotypes about the place they went.  They don't understand the place they've been to.  They can talk about where they've gone and sound very smart, but they didn't take much away besides raw data.  That's even worse than ignorance.  It's a much more serious failing. 

If you've been to the States, or you've met Americans, and you think Americans are generally ignorant/arrogant/sheltered or whatever, then the only person who is a fool is you.  You obviously didn't pick up anything, or you let your experiences in a certain context define your entire reality and view of a place or subject.  Both are extremely unwise things to do. 

If you think half of South Africans have AIDS, or that Johannesburg is the most dangerous place in the world, and you've been to South Africa, you shouldn't even have ignorance as an excuse.  Shit, there are even South Africans who think this way.  It's pathetic.   

I know this ties into my "Don't Believe the Hype" PSA in many different ways.  But it's still an issue in my mind that I can't seem to put to bed.  I've just encountered too many people that think they are so wise in the ways of the world, when in reality they aren't wise to shit.  How can you claim wisdom when you don't show any sign of knowing how people the world over like to be treated?  How can you claim awareness when you don't even know what's going on next door to you?  We are all guilty of this to an extent; shit, I don't know if I could name a single Mexican government official.  But I know there are far worse offenders than me. 

I've had many people say to me things like, "Wow, you've never travelled outside of North America without your parents until now?  Wow, that's a shame.  It almost doesn't count.  You've missed out on so much."  That may be true, but I've got something you don't: an open mind.  My travel as a child is one of the defining aspects of my development.  It helped to shape who I am as a person, parents or no parents.  Things tend to make more of an impact when you're young than they do when you're old in any case.  The fact that these people didn't bother to acknowledge these aspects reveals a lack of wisdom. 

Of course, when confronted these same people often say "Oh, of courese I realize that."  Sure you do.  That's why you didn't mention it, right? 

I've even met people who speak a lot of other languages, and this defines them completely.  They will work on teams, and constantly use a language that only one other person on those teams can understand.  They abhor and look down on anything English, even though English is in their ethnic roots and is one of their fluent languages.  They won't even read in English or watch movies in English.  What are they trying to prove?  To me, it proves nothing except this:

Arrogance is a universal language, and very few people like to hear it spoken.  They've got a lot of knowledge, but little wisdom.  Going to a lot of countries or speaking a lot of languages doesn't make people any less self-absorbed -- just like having a black friend doesn't make someone any less racist.  It takes a combination of experience, exposure, desire and open-mindedness to really learn something, and apply what you've learned.  A wise person lives out what one of my parents once told me: there is no useless knowledge.   

If you're wondering, I consider myself to be more wise than unwise.  It doesn't mean that I know everything.  It doesn't mean that I've travelled a lot; although that might help in my case, it might not in others.  The reason that I consider myself decently wise is that I'm not particularly closeminded, and I try to empathize with people while thinking critically about my surroundings.  I'm pretty self-aware for someone who posts ridiculous amounts of information on a website. 

I also seek out and take a great deal of advice.  People who think they know everything aren't wise.  In fact, even people who are 100% sure of what little they know aren't wise. 

I don't know if this makes any sense to anyone, but I'd like to hear how you feel about this (assuming you know what I'm talking about).  If you've encountered people, groups, organizations of situations where you were stupefied by a lack of wisdom, please tell me about it.

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