Like every Thursday
RICARDO BLUME
Newspaper articles
(This is the compilation of some articles published in the newspaper El Comercio of Lima Peru between 1981 and 1988)
The enemy is ignorance
RICARDO BLUME
Newspaper articles
 |
| Ricardo Blume |
(This is the compilation of some articles published in the newspaper El Comercio of Lima Peru between 1981 and 1988)
The enemy is ignorance
Everything I have with me tells what the wise Bias said, when his fellow
citizens threatened by the army of Cyrus left the city loaded with all their
riches and were amazed that the philosopher did not take anything with him.
Knowledge does not take place _ says the popular voice. Wisdom, then, is the greatest wealth.
It is carried inside like the true mourning, it does not bother, it does not weigh, it does not interfere and nobody can steal it because it is immaterial.
Knowledge does not take place _ says the popular voice. Wisdom, then, is the greatest wealth.
It is carried inside like the true mourning, it does not bother, it does not weigh, it does not interfere and nobody can steal it because it is immaterial.
Knowledge sheds light, removes
the bandages from the eyes, clarifies the panorama, frees the bonds that terror
gives us to the unknown and facilitates the movement towards the solution of
the problems that daily bring living.
Ignorance is the blindness of the
understanding, the awkwardness in the displacement, the stumbling at every
step, the paralysis or the outburst, the swipe in the void or foolish and
crazy, the human being turned into the blind hen, without hitting one, with the
aggressiveness of the insecure, of the one who does not know what terrain he is
treading or what kind of dark labyrinth he is in. If there is a desirable good,
it is the knowledge, the light, the possibility of solving the problem, of
getting out of the quagmire that inevitably we fall by trying to follow the
blurred footprints of previous travelers in this uncertain journey.
_It is not here, it is over there_ we say crawling, gesturing, bewildered in the dark, as in the famous piece of Ionesco. The way is made when walking, says the poet Machado; inviting us to stand up, to look for new ways, to be bold and determined.
_It is not here, it is over there_ we say crawling, gesturing, bewildered in the dark, as in the famous piece of Ionesco. The way is made when walking, says the poet Machado; inviting us to stand up, to look for new ways, to be bold and determined.
But of course, with our eyes wide
open, in the light of day, with a certain notion of where we are going, or at
least, where we think we want to go.
If there is an enemy to fight right and left, without truce or barracks, it is ignorance, which, after all, is the cause of all our ills, slips, trips and misunderstandings.
The day that the teacher, the philosopher, the wise man will be the most respected man on the face of the earth; the day that there are more classrooms than barracks and prisons; the utopian day in which more books and notebooks are bought than weapons and ammunition ... that day the clarity of understanding will foster understanding among men and dissipate the dark forces that throw handfuls of earth into the simple eyes of the people.
The day that the media truthfully inform, instruct with amenity, as who does not want the thing _but wanting it! _ , delivered with ingenuity and intelligence and without pro chastity; the day, in short, that all truly put themselves at the service of man (of this country) and communicate with each other ... that day, which my eyes will not see, will have taken a healthy step towards the path, the truth and the light.
They will tell me that I was choking, ranting, sin of ingenuity, idealism ... or something unpublished; that there are underground and transnational forces that operate in the shadow and silently move supposed and sinister threads.
I respond with an old Hindu proverb that I have just invented, and that sounds like a slogan or a street demonstration machine: a warned man will never be manipulated.
For me a man warned is the one on notice. Or as the dictionary say:
Prudent, discreet and sagacious. I like it more in this case, the latter word.
If there is an enemy to fight right and left, without truce or barracks, it is ignorance, which, after all, is the cause of all our ills, slips, trips and misunderstandings.
The day that the teacher, the philosopher, the wise man will be the most respected man on the face of the earth; the day that there are more classrooms than barracks and prisons; the utopian day in which more books and notebooks are bought than weapons and ammunition ... that day the clarity of understanding will foster understanding among men and dissipate the dark forces that throw handfuls of earth into the simple eyes of the people.
The day that the media truthfully inform, instruct with amenity, as who does not want the thing _but wanting it! _ , delivered with ingenuity and intelligence and without pro chastity; the day, in short, that all truly put themselves at the service of man (of this country) and communicate with each other ... that day, which my eyes will not see, will have taken a healthy step towards the path, the truth and the light.
They will tell me that I was choking, ranting, sin of ingenuity, idealism ... or something unpublished; that there are underground and transnational forces that operate in the shadow and silently move supposed and sinister threads.
I respond with an old Hindu proverb that I have just invented, and that sounds like a slogan or a street demonstration machine: a warned man will never be manipulated.
For me a man warned is the one on notice. Or as the dictionary say:
Prudent, discreet and sagacious. I like it more in this case, the latter word.
The author. February 17, 1983
With affection,
Ruben
Ruben
No comments:
Post a Comment