Knowledge for the Sake of Knowledge

Knowledge for Knowledge’s Sake

Very commonly I notice that on social media websites people enjoy posting horribly atrocious things that are currently occurring or have occurred in the world, in order to manufacture this guise that makes them appear concerned with world-issues. This can be good, but it can also be bad. Knowing things just for the sake of knowing things is asinine, there is no point to knowing it besides the fact that you can quietly and personally ruminate on the idea. Knowledge, in my perhaps warped view, should be pragmatic and enable action. Learning about the function of the human body, for example, allows me to learn what I must nourish myself with for optimal performance in every aspect and how I should exert myself to maintain a healthy structure. Learning about the functions of the mind, as another example, allows me to fix odd behaviors that only become noticeably odd once you have learned the function of the mind, and how it can trick us into desiring things we don’t actually need to desire, like high fat foods which once served us because our next meal was never guaranteed before the advent of stable agriculture. Knowledge for knowledge’s sake is a peculiar aspect of the ego. Our mind seems to like to amass knowledge, once it has been given the ability through instant access via the internet, for no particular purpose. I notice this in myself as well, but it took me being there to comprehend the futility of it. I used to love learning things for the purpose of telling it to people so that they’d believe I was incredibly learned. I used to really enjoy criticizing society but doing absolutely nothing to fix it, like most teenagers. Self-reflection and ego-deconstruction has allowed me to become aware of this characteristic in myself and has helped me slowly excise it. If you truly want to incite change or reform in society you unfortunately need to climb the political ladder and mould your beliefs around the constituency you need to garner the acceptance and appraisal of, something I have no interest in. I'd much rather seek the havens which offer that which I am seeking, such as a smaller community with stronger social bonds between citizens because they already exist, there's no point in attempting to reform this particular form of society when the one which offers what you need already exists.

I believe the ego plays a large role in this particular phenomenon. Everyone wants to appear intellectually competent and wants to appear informed. Even if that intellect and information don’t serve you in your day-to-day life and you still find yourself getting sick frequently due to a poorly-kept immune system, your stomach always bothers you because you aren’t feeding it properly, you need medication because you aren’t getting enough sleep and you drink soda pops too often, or any other one of a multitude of maladies that afflict the poorly-nourished human. Practical knowledge trumps knowledge for the sake of knowledge.