DailyPost 905
GYANOPHOBIA
When you talk to people of all ages and walks of life, you would get a feeling that this country is immersed in knowledge. Education is the only investment and without education nothing can happen, endless such cliches flaunted, to announce a commitment to a goal, they never aspired of. The first element of doubt comes when parents would ask the child, as to why he or she is studying when the exams are over. The correct positioning of Gyan is somewhere in between knowledge and wisdom. Workable degrees and gyan are not coterminous.
When the umbilical cord relationship between education and jobs are well codified in the Indian psyche and only that much is desirable, where and how does the creation of gyan happen. Reading and studying at work in free time or time beyond work is an aberration India can do without. The defaulters far and few, are well known in their area of influence. But they are not to be emulated but necessarily appreciated and then forgotten. Finding time to talk to some gyanis, the field experts, reading famed journals, spending some free time for real professional knowledge growth is a no.
Social Media abhors gyan and so are the social media’s immersed users. The content there is typical in nature, fun and frolic apart, it has as sensationalising twist-curated with a purpose . While publishing, print and electronic media has gyan in the same descending order, the social media – the tool of crowd sourcing of knowledge and information has decided to be completely devoid of it. Post something worthwhile on a Whatsapp group, either the die hard members are up in arms or it is ignored.
It seems we are afflicted by Gyanophobia, a serious aversion to high end knowledge bordering on wisdom. It is supposed to be antithetical to what good quality of life stands for; a roller coaster ride between brands. When someone starts with the refrain don’t give gyan, it in no time becomes a chorus. Anything with a well thought out wholistic and futuristic view, objective and empirical, is declared serious and so does not warrant concern of the vast majority. In the Information Age, committed to be data driven, Gyanophobia reigns supreme.
IN THE ENSUING AUTOMATED AGE, GYAN AT THE CORE OF CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION WILL BE THE STRONGEST CURRENCY.
Sanjay Sahay