Satirists
and humorists describe a person with a PhD as one suffering from the “Permanent
Head Damage” syndrome. The thing is; if
you are a PhD holder and your head is still intact as it was before you
started, the possibility is that you have managed to get that PhD through some
other means other than your own head, maybe through other’s head.
One
of the signs of learning is that the more you learn the more you know how much
you do not know. The one and only Plato
cites a phrase from his teacher Socrates and says “one thing I know that I know
nothing”. The assertions and convictions
you had before your PhD appear so foolish and immature that you pause long and
hard to make any such assertions again without making sure of the evidence
available. Dogmatism gives ways to
pragmatism in which there could be other ways of looking at the same reality
from a different angle. But in the eyes
of ordinary folks, such a lack of conviction appears to be a weakness and especially
if it happens from a pastor, it is worse.
The
other day, a pastor friend gave me a long distance call and lectured me nice
and long. Having heard from the man
after nearly 15 years, I wanted to have the same friendly conversations we used
to enjoy. But alas! He demanded that I
respect him because he has gotten his PhD.
I congratulated him and hung the phone wondering what kind of PhD that
would be!
The
idealist is often misunderstood and thought to be a lunatic by the common folks
who are busy in looking for the things that would make their lives livable in
this world. An ordinary father worries
about putting things on the table so that his children won’t go hungry. A roof to maintain over their heads, clothes
to cover their bodies and a stable future is what he thinks about all the time. If he can lead a life of peace and relative
prosperity to his dying days would be a great success for this father. When an idealist comes to his house and talks
about life in a deeper sense, this simple father has no interest in it. Thinking is such a luxury that such a father
cannot afford in his life.
The
naive, the proud and the innocent ordinary folks appear to have no time to
think about the deeper things and therefore, to them, the thinking person is
often considered a lunatic or out of sync with the world we live in.
