Junk Knowledge

Curiosity is the necessary first condition to wisdom, in the same sense that hunger is the drive that leads to nutrition. 

But hunger is also the first condition to obesity.  All depends upon how we satisfy the craving.  As with food, our society is rife with purveyers of ersatz low-fact junk ‘knowledge’.  When we choose these over more wholesome knowledge, we risk becoming mentally sedentary and lethargic. 

Unlike serious learning, junk knowledge is easy to digest, requiring no rumination.  Serious learning challenges us, and may detach us from our foundational beliefs and preconceived notions.  It is much easier to be spoon-fed predigested pablum – so easy that it’s addictive.  Once the addiction is set, the systems that process real knowledge atrophy, and it becomes nearly impossible to go back. 

The classical Greek playwright Aeschylus said, ‘He who learns must suffer’.  I would add that he who learns must suffer fools who opt not to.