“I cannot live without books; but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object.”
Books allow us to hear from people long dead, and speak to people yet unborn
More than 3,000 years ago, an epic poem was written in Ancient Mesopotamia. It is known as the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” and it is now available as a book. It is still being read, and still being studied – more than 30 centuries after its publication! It’s one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature in human history. The book is proof that writing allows you to “hear from people long dead, and speak to people yet unborn” – to paraphrase some words often attributed to Abraham Lincoln. None of those viewing this post were alive when this book was written. None of them ever met the authors, or even saw the grainiest photograph of them – let alone the people themselves. But we can still read a translation of their words, almost as though we could hear their voices. In a way, their voices can still speak to us, and their words still echo in the ears of the living.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, on clay tablets
Books help us to fight the collective amnesia of society, and gain the “wisdom of the ages”
Imagine if you woke up tomorrow, and you couldn’t remember any of your past. How well could you manage? Literal amnesia is rare for individuals, even though it’s been explored by countless works of fiction. But collective amnesia is a common problem, since it’s renewed every time a new baby is born. An infant is an opportunity to pass on our collective wisdom, and help them to learn from the experience of others. Such is the importance of education, which imparts to people the “wisdom of the ages.” Educational institutions have misled people at times, and (sadly) have sometimes left them more ignorant than they were before. But even today, there is much good being done by the school system. At its best, it teaches people how to read, and thus gives them access to the “wisdom of the ages.” Once that knowledge is gained, people can learn for themselves what the schools often fail to teach them – even getting knowledge that the schools would actively try to prevent them from acquiring. (More about that in another post.)
Frederick Douglass, someone who took a great risk to learn how to read
Comments on the need for literacy, and the dangers of censoring books (or other media)
Some in history have even tried to hinder literacy, as the White South did with their Black slave population. Literacy and education were considered too dangerous there. In other places (such as Nazi Germany), governments have banned certain books, and even burned them. These led to massive tragedies on a national scale. As Voltaire warned, a nation that burns books eventually burns people. How right he was. Censorship has existed throughout history, and it continues in many places today – enforced at gunpoint by some of the world’s most tyrannical governments. I don’t want to turn this post into a bitter rant about censorship, but it would be irresponsible to omit the dangers that censorship can pose. (More about that here.) As a powerful alternative, I believe in the marketplace of ideas, as have many before me. As Thomas Jefferson said in 1801, “error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it.” (Source: First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1801) If an opinion cannot gain followers without suppressing its opposition, that opinion deserves to be thrown onto the “ash-heap of history.” It must compete in the “marketplace of ideas,” or be doomed to obscurity and oblivion.
Thomas Jefferson
Books help us to transmit ideas, and store the collective knowledge of the human race
Books have long been one of the most important mediums through which ideas are transmitted. Even today, in the age of the Internet, books still exert an influence on what human beings think and feel. Even more importantly, they exert an influence on what human beings do, and how they treat their fellow human beings. Books of many kinds (fiction and non-fiction) teach moral lessons, and what it means to be human. They store the collective knowledge of the human race on virtually every conceivable topic, ranging from the arts and the sciences to business and engineering. They save us from having to re-invent the wheel, figuratively or even literally. They give us access to the great thoughts of centuries past. They allow us to be taught by the greatest teachers, living and dead, and increase our spirituality in any way we choose. In so many ways, books enrich us – making us better, or smarter, or more caring than we were before.
The Library of Congress, the largest library in the world
The need for the “marketplace of ideas,” and the worlds that books can open to us
In our haste to be more sensitive, let us not throw out the knowledge of the past. In our haste to uphold modern standards, let us not abandon the “wisdom of the ages.” These standards have not always existed, so we should not apply them retroactively to dead authors who never heard of these standards, and who thus had no reason – discernible to them, at least – to obey these standards. Rather, let us grant our children unfettered access to the “marketplace of ideas,” and to the “wisdom of the ages” – as is age-appropriate, at least. When we teach children how to read, we open their eyes to a whole new world. That world is not always visible when they’re learning the alphabet for the first time – when they may not be able to envision why the “ABC’s” are useful. But the ability to read can take children (and others) to distant times and distant places. It can show them lost worlds and possible future lands. It can take them into fantasy worlds, into utopias and dystopias, into heavens and hells. It can show them how people faced challenges and hardships – real suffering – and how they overcame these things. It can help them to escape from dark present circumstances, and give them respite from daily trials – and even humdrum routines.
Carl Sagan, astronomer
A quote from Carl Sagan about books being a kind of “magic”
As Carl Sagan once put it, “What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.” (Source: Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” [1980], Part 11: “The Persistence of Memory”) I couldn’t agree more. A book truly is magic. It’s proof of the near-limitless potential of human beings. It’s proof of their ability to learn from their ancestors, and to speak to their descendants. If I died tomorrow, people would still be able to access these writings on my blog for a time – and perhaps in some other medium forever afterward. These words might be read by people who are yet unborn, who will only enter this world long after I have checked out of it. And while I am yet alive, I may still read writings from thousands of years ago, and hear from the “wisdom of the ages.” It is astoundingly moving and beautiful – a truly miraculous phenomenon. It is older than the pharaohs, and newer than your phone’s Kindle app.
The Holy Bible
Conclusion: The overall legacy of books has been overwhelmingly positive
I continue to be entranced by books. They are a part of my daily diet and nourishment. Some books may be rather silly (although I read some of these anyway), but the overall legacy of the written word has been overwhelmingly positive. Its legacy continues in e-books and audiobooks, and continued mountains of printed material. I pray that we will always have access to this material, and will never cease learning about the “wisdom of the ages.” The Internet puts many of these works (including the Bible) at our fingertips for free, allowing us to have access to them on computers and mobile devices. Such is the enduring legacy of books, and the magic of the written word.
“Seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; [and] seek learning …”
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See also this series about
Education
Civics education
History education
Classical education
Biblical education
Philosophy education
Linguistics education
Foreign language education
Business education
Economics education
Math education
Finance education
Marketing research education
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