Books II

I noticed as an adolescent that whenever I visited the home of an American friend, the shelves were filled with current affairs books, the tables stacked with National Geographic, Time and Newsweek. When I visited the home of Chinese friends, the bookshelves were full of VHS tapes of Chinese soap operas and pop music concerts. It seemed to me that only books were the textbooks from school. Granted that my Chinese friends were of first-generation working class families of modest means who focused on the practical subjects upon which to attain college and a career, and my Irish, Italian, Greek and Polish American friends came from the more middle-class families of Bay Ridge. One class seeks escape from the daily grind while the other sought the authenticity of other social realities.

And granted that many Americans today mostly read Stephen King or Danielle Steele while they're not watching Desperate Housewives or American Idol. Yes, within both peoples are majorities who prefer to ignore l’affaires d’etat and numb their minds with electronic entertainment (I myself am guilty of playing Rainbow Six for hours on end)

But keeping up on current affairs and politics is cultural survival. English literates have access to translations of ancient texts from every culture. We can learn lessons from the achievements and mistakes of others. To suggest that one’s culture has learned all there is to know is the height of arrogance, when we’re at the edge of the Transhumanist Epoch.

Will the Chinese every learn from the speeches of Livy? Will the Arabs every learn from Thucydides? Will the Russians ever learn from John Locke? Note that I exclude the Indians, because India is arguably the largest English-speaking country in the world and have a robust tradition of scholarship in both science and the humanities.

Thank god I speak and read English. Thank you, Mrs. Weinstein, in the 3rd grade, for patiently giving me this gift of English literacy, a most precious key which has unlocked a thousand doors into a thousand worlds. Paradise Lost. The Divine Comedy. Don Quixote. Romeo and Juliet. Anna Karenna. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The Great Gatsby. Catcher in the Rye. Atlas Shrugged. On the Road.