Why you should read books
If ignorance is the enemy of freedom, then reading must, logically, be one of the stronger allies.
According to some sources, the average person stops educating themselves (those of us privileged enough to have access to education) by the time they are thirty years-old. After that, if not even before, the bulk of people launch into a career and lifestyle which engages them in other challenges, few of which include actually educating their minds. While statistics and research vary, one research group (Pew Research) showed that upwards of 28% of adults surveyed in America had not read a book in the entire prior year. This, in one of the supposedly most educated nations.
We could blame the decline in reading on the rise of live-streaming television (Netflix, HBO et al), Facebook and other social media which has people's minds switched to another frequency, but there is another much more subtle and pervasive undercurrent at work.
How many media sources in your life are currently telling you to READ and increase your knowledge? Compared to the massive hourly assault on you by commercials telling you to buy a new car, to gamble, to buy this and that? It's practically nothing, and there is a reason for that. Literate people, people who delve into books and read often, are not so easily swayed nor are they so vulnerable to the constant barrage of commercialism selling society on a lifestyle of excess, as opposed to expanding their mental horizons. Sadly, we are being educated to wrap up our enlightenment period by our mid-twenties, launch into a career - and then be good obedient citizens. Few sources are telling us TO READ, and fewer still are telling us to keep expanding our mental horizons ... because ... well, reading frees the mind, whereas ignorance ... you got it.
Don't be a slave to the media-obsessed-culture. Pick up a book and expand your mind - and keep doing it. Soon, you'll realize that your mind craves it, because it's healthy for the soul.
According to some sources, the average person stops educating themselves (those of us privileged enough to have access to education) by the time they are thirty years-old. After that, if not even before, the bulk of people launch into a career and lifestyle which engages them in other challenges, few of which include actually educating their minds. While statistics and research vary, one research group (Pew Research) showed that upwards of 28% of adults surveyed in America had not read a book in the entire prior year. This, in one of the supposedly most educated nations.
We could blame the decline in reading on the rise of live-streaming television (Netflix, HBO et al), Facebook and other social media which has people's minds switched to another frequency, but there is another much more subtle and pervasive undercurrent at work.
How many media sources in your life are currently telling you to READ and increase your knowledge? Compared to the massive hourly assault on you by commercials telling you to buy a new car, to gamble, to buy this and that? It's practically nothing, and there is a reason for that. Literate people, people who delve into books and read often, are not so easily swayed nor are they so vulnerable to the constant barrage of commercialism selling society on a lifestyle of excess, as opposed to expanding their mental horizons. Sadly, we are being educated to wrap up our enlightenment period by our mid-twenties, launch into a career - and then be good obedient citizens. Few sources are telling us TO READ, and fewer still are telling us to keep expanding our mental horizons ... because ... well, reading frees the mind, whereas ignorance ... you got it.
Don't be a slave to the media-obsessed-culture. Pick up a book and expand your mind - and keep doing it. Soon, you'll realize that your mind craves it, because it's healthy for the soul.
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