I have been talking about the insanity of "having" the current society in some of my previous articles, such as http://criativ-mind.blogspot.in/2012/04/dont-kill-just-listen.html
http://criativ-mind.blogspot.in/2012/03/karl-marx-on-being-and-sham-of-having.html
This propensity of having is so ingrained in everyday life, that it is most often hidden from our conscious selves. It is rather easier to come out of this race of having more and more on a material realm, related to possessions in material, once man sees the innate emptiness in just material possessions. But the addiction of possessing more and more in the mental and emotional realm is much more tricky. Man many a times is prey of his own rationalizations, and get stuck to the illusion of having.
Erich Fromm portrays in a beautiful and simple way the nature of "having" knowledge and learning, and its difference from the higher state of "being" in the realm of knowing, in his book "To Have or To Be". He says-
"The difference between the mode of having and the mode of being in the sphere of knowing is expressed in two formulations: "I have knowledge" and "I know". Having knowledge is taking and keeping possession of available knowledge; knowing is functional and serves only as a means in the process of productive thinking.
Our understanding of the quality of knowing in being mode of existence can be enhanced by the insights of such thinkers as the Buddha, the Hebrew prophets, Jesus, Master Eckhart, Sigmund Freud, and Karl Marx. In their view, knowing begins with the awareness of the deceptiveness of our common sense perceptions, in the sense that our picture of physical reality does not correspond to what is "really real" and, mainly in the sense that most people are half awake, half dreaming, and are unaware that most of what they hold to be true and self evident is illusion produced by suggestive influence of the social world in which they live. Knowing, then, begins with shattering of illusions, with disillusionment. Knowing means to penetrate through the surface, in order to arrive at the roots, and hence the causes; knowing means to "see" reality in its nakedness. Knowing does not mean to be in possession of the truth; it means to penetrate the surface and to strive critically an actively in order to approach truth ever more closely.
The Buddha calls on people to wake up and liberate themselves from the illusion that craving for things/people lead to happiness. The Hebrew prophets appeal to the people to wake up and know that their idols are nothing but the work of their own hands, are illusions. Jesus says : Truth shall make you free. Master Eckhart expressed his concept of knowing many times; for instance, when speaking of God he says: "Knowledge is no particular thought but rather it peels off all coverings and is disinterested and runs naked to God, until it touches him and grasps him". According to Marx, one needs to destroy illusions in order to create the conditions that make illusions unnecessary. Freud's concept of self-knowledge is based on the idea of destroying illusions through ones own rationalizations in order to become aware of the unconscious reality.
All these thinkers were concerned with human salvation; they were all critical of socially accepted thought patterns. To them the aim of knowing is not the certainty of "absolute truth", something one can feel secure with, but the self affirmation process of human reason. Ignorance, for the one who knows, is as good as knowledge, since both are part of the process of knowing, even though ignorance of this kind is different from ignorance of the unthinking. Optimum knowledge in the being mode is to know more deeply. In the having mode it is to have more knowledge.
Our education generally tries to train people to have knowledge as a possession, by and large commensurate with the amount of property or social prestige they are likely to have in later life. The schools are the factories in which these overall knowledge packages are produced - although schools usually claim they mean to bring the students in touch with the highest achievements of the human mind. Many undergraduate colleges are particularly adroit in nurturing these illusions. From Indian thought and art to existentialism and surrealism, a vast smorgasbord of knowledge is offered from which students pick a little here, a little there, and in the name of spontaneity and freedom are not urged to concentrate on one subject, not even ever to finish reading an entire book."
This is beautifully expressed! I would not have agreed more to the thoughts of Fromm, and could not have expressed it so to-the-point, precise and correctly. It amuses me when I get weekly newsletters from various organizations presenting abstracts of various books and articles. The so called think tanks of the current world like Harvard Business Review, The Economist, and others in the league, try to bring out tit-bits of knowledge form here and there. Most of the articles try to give a peek to the reader, some deep and long research work of some professors inside the hallowed walls of the greatest universities of the world. It is good that this helps the common man to have a peek onto what is happening in the realms of the frontiers of leadership, science, archeology, etc. But the issue is the common man is satisfied with an abstract, or an illustration, or a simplified "digestible" format of the knowledge. With the half baked knowledge the reader extrapolates it and tries to use it for himself. Neither there is a depth of thinking that is developed in the reader, nor the reader is able to create something unique and original. Most of the things he says, believes and opines are borrowed thoughts, which are not even understood properly. I understand that one has to learn from the giants. But "learning" from the giants is reduced to "copying" from the giants. The scope of the writings of the greatest masters and thinkers get reduced when man tries to relate to them from the mode of having, and not giving enough time and energy to go deep into the real essence of them. No wonder I see many writing in their interests section, in their profiles in the social networking sites - Bollywood gossips, films!
Our society is in dire need of increasing depth and quality, and reducing the quantity. An effort needs to be taken from each individual to take a breath, step back, and be mindful of his present - what he is reading, what he is watching, what he is doing, what he is thinking. And from that point, he has to go deeper into each realm, trying to break through the forced illusion that is being intricately woven by the modern plague of capitalism, consumerism, commoditization, globalization, and what not. It is high time to ask ourselves questions like - "Which book am I reading nowadays?", "What I understood for myself from the book I read last?", "What is that I care the most?", "What the great thinkers of yesteryears had to say about their lives and nature of the world?", "What are the illusions I subscribe to without even questioning?", "Was I helpful to others in any way today?", "Was I in a state of love or hatred in the moment just passed?", "What is the legacy I am leaving behind", "What I would like to leave inscribed on my epitaph, when I die" etc.
http://criativ-mind.blogspot.in/2012/03/karl-marx-on-being-and-sham-of-having.html
This propensity of having is so ingrained in everyday life, that it is most often hidden from our conscious selves. It is rather easier to come out of this race of having more and more on a material realm, related to possessions in material, once man sees the innate emptiness in just material possessions. But the addiction of possessing more and more in the mental and emotional realm is much more tricky. Man many a times is prey of his own rationalizations, and get stuck to the illusion of having.
Erich Fromm portrays in a beautiful and simple way the nature of "having" knowledge and learning, and its difference from the higher state of "being" in the realm of knowing, in his book "To Have or To Be". He says-
"The difference between the mode of having and the mode of being in the sphere of knowing is expressed in two formulations: "I have knowledge" and "I know". Having knowledge is taking and keeping possession of available knowledge; knowing is functional and serves only as a means in the process of productive thinking.
Our understanding of the quality of knowing in being mode of existence can be enhanced by the insights of such thinkers as the Buddha, the Hebrew prophets, Jesus, Master Eckhart, Sigmund Freud, and Karl Marx. In their view, knowing begins with the awareness of the deceptiveness of our common sense perceptions, in the sense that our picture of physical reality does not correspond to what is "really real" and, mainly in the sense that most people are half awake, half dreaming, and are unaware that most of what they hold to be true and self evident is illusion produced by suggestive influence of the social world in which they live. Knowing, then, begins with shattering of illusions, with disillusionment. Knowing means to penetrate through the surface, in order to arrive at the roots, and hence the causes; knowing means to "see" reality in its nakedness. Knowing does not mean to be in possession of the truth; it means to penetrate the surface and to strive critically an actively in order to approach truth ever more closely.
The Buddha calls on people to wake up and liberate themselves from the illusion that craving for things/people lead to happiness. The Hebrew prophets appeal to the people to wake up and know that their idols are nothing but the work of their own hands, are illusions. Jesus says : Truth shall make you free. Master Eckhart expressed his concept of knowing many times; for instance, when speaking of God he says: "Knowledge is no particular thought but rather it peels off all coverings and is disinterested and runs naked to God, until it touches him and grasps him". According to Marx, one needs to destroy illusions in order to create the conditions that make illusions unnecessary. Freud's concept of self-knowledge is based on the idea of destroying illusions through ones own rationalizations in order to become aware of the unconscious reality.
All these thinkers were concerned with human salvation; they were all critical of socially accepted thought patterns. To them the aim of knowing is not the certainty of "absolute truth", something one can feel secure with, but the self affirmation process of human reason. Ignorance, for the one who knows, is as good as knowledge, since both are part of the process of knowing, even though ignorance of this kind is different from ignorance of the unthinking. Optimum knowledge in the being mode is to know more deeply. In the having mode it is to have more knowledge.
Our education generally tries to train people to have knowledge as a possession, by and large commensurate with the amount of property or social prestige they are likely to have in later life. The schools are the factories in which these overall knowledge packages are produced - although schools usually claim they mean to bring the students in touch with the highest achievements of the human mind. Many undergraduate colleges are particularly adroit in nurturing these illusions. From Indian thought and art to existentialism and surrealism, a vast smorgasbord of knowledge is offered from which students pick a little here, a little there, and in the name of spontaneity and freedom are not urged to concentrate on one subject, not even ever to finish reading an entire book."
This is beautifully expressed! I would not have agreed more to the thoughts of Fromm, and could not have expressed it so to-the-point, precise and correctly. It amuses me when I get weekly newsletters from various organizations presenting abstracts of various books and articles. The so called think tanks of the current world like Harvard Business Review, The Economist, and others in the league, try to bring out tit-bits of knowledge form here and there. Most of the articles try to give a peek to the reader, some deep and long research work of some professors inside the hallowed walls of the greatest universities of the world. It is good that this helps the common man to have a peek onto what is happening in the realms of the frontiers of leadership, science, archeology, etc. But the issue is the common man is satisfied with an abstract, or an illustration, or a simplified "digestible" format of the knowledge. With the half baked knowledge the reader extrapolates it and tries to use it for himself. Neither there is a depth of thinking that is developed in the reader, nor the reader is able to create something unique and original. Most of the things he says, believes and opines are borrowed thoughts, which are not even understood properly. I understand that one has to learn from the giants. But "learning" from the giants is reduced to "copying" from the giants. The scope of the writings of the greatest masters and thinkers get reduced when man tries to relate to them from the mode of having, and not giving enough time and energy to go deep into the real essence of them. No wonder I see many writing in their interests section, in their profiles in the social networking sites - Bollywood gossips, films!
Our society is in dire need of increasing depth and quality, and reducing the quantity. An effort needs to be taken from each individual to take a breath, step back, and be mindful of his present - what he is reading, what he is watching, what he is doing, what he is thinking. And from that point, he has to go deeper into each realm, trying to break through the forced illusion that is being intricately woven by the modern plague of capitalism, consumerism, commoditization, globalization, and what not. It is high time to ask ourselves questions like - "Which book am I reading nowadays?", "What I understood for myself from the book I read last?", "What is that I care the most?", "What the great thinkers of yesteryears had to say about their lives and nature of the world?", "What are the illusions I subscribe to without even questioning?", "Was I helpful to others in any way today?", "Was I in a state of love or hatred in the moment just passed?", "What is the legacy I am leaving behind", "What I would like to leave inscribed on my epitaph, when I die" etc.
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