How to be Stupid: Don't Read

I was talking to my friend the other night about how stupid people are.  No, not in general, because I'm not one of those people who think people are genuinely just stupid.  I meant in terms of that they don't do what's good for them, even when it's right there in front of them, even when it's really simple.  And one of those simple things that people could do to improve their lives but don't is read a book.

Yes, read a book.  But people don't.  They go, "Oh, it's so boring!"  And they don't read, when books have all this wisdom - hundreds, thousands of years of wisdom, numerous people lives and experiences for you to learn from and benefit from.

I, myself, have always been a book lover.  I read so much as a kid.  I would go to the library on my own and choose as many books as they would let me borrow, and I would eat them up.  I loved how they would open up so many different worlds, and how they made anything seem possible, and how they ended happily.  If anything, the reason why I am an optimist today is not because it's inborn, it's because I read books.  In fact, I told my friend, the idea of being a realist scares me.  Why would you want to live just in this world?

Books are the best form of escape.  I was thinking about this when I was talking to my friends about drug use and I really wanted to ask, "Why do people do drugs?"  If you really want to escape, read a book.  It has no terrible side effects and you'll feel good when you're reading, and after.  If you want peace, meditate (re: my post, "The Need for Meditation & Self-Reflection").  That will have a lasting effect and no nasty "down" period.  If you want to be less inhibited, practice it.  Yes, practice it.  Take an acting class, and learn to come outside yourself.  Those effects will last.  You'll be more peaceful, happy, and uninhibited than you ever thought possible.  And you won't have to take a drug to keep feeling that way.  It'll be long-lasting.  It's not as easy as imbibing alcohol or lighting up a bong, but it'll last more than a few hours, and you won't be destroying your body in the process.  Indeed, you'll actually be helping your body and yourself get even better.

All those things are free.  (Well, class may not be, but it's worth it).  That's why they say the best things in life are free.  They really are.

Books are free, from the library.  All you need is a library card.  And yet, how many people take advantage of that?  It's because it's free that people discount its value.  If books and libraries cost thousands of dollars, we'd look at them differently.  But because they can be free, we go, "They're worthless."  When in fact, the opposite is true.  They're one of the most valuable things in the world.

If you want a conspiracy theory - the smart people of the world made books free so that people would discount their value, and not read, and not become as smart as them.

If you want a sociological theory - the smart people of the world made books free so that people would become smarter, but people discounted their work because it was free.

I, myself, though I loved books, didn't realize how extremely valuable they actually were until I read it in a book (Yes, "The Success Principles" by Jack Canfield).  In it, he said what I basically said above, which is that books have thousands of years of wisdom right there at your fingertips for you to read and apply to your life.  If there's something you want to do, someone has already done it, and you can read a book and it'll tell you how they did it.  That's why people are stupid not to read.  If you just go through life on your own, without making use of the advice of thousands of years and experiences, you're going to make mistakes - mistakes that other people have already made, and learned from, and can teach you from repeating, so that you can be even more successful than them.  If you just go through your life trying to do it all on your own, you're going to spend most of your life learning what you could have read in a book.  That's why Canfield suggests reading every day, whenever you can.  It's the people who read who have the advantage.  Why do you think that such a majority of people in prisons are illiterate?  It's because they didn't have the power to read a book and improve their lives.  Books give you access to other people's knowledge, experiences, and ideas and that can only give you more options in your life than you thought you had - the option to make better choices, and find better solutions.

The thing I found most dumb is that we pay for all these quick fixes, these immediate sources of happiness to make us happy for one moment.  One moment, until we do it again, and need to pay for it again.  When in fact, if we would work hard, and struggle, and learn how to accomplish the peace, the freedom, the escape from reality we need, eventually we would succeed and earn a happiness that could last us a lifetime.