To Read Too Many Books is Harmful

[ApcehCraft]

Can somebody explain Mao's quote "To Read Too Many Books is Harmful" to me? :confused:

[ApcehCraft]

bump

[Aslan]

Basically he advises you to read less so your eyes don't strain;)

[Asero]

Google searching brought up this:
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-9/mswv9_14.htm

Seems Mao is reiterating Where Do Correct Ideas Come From (https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-9/mswv9_01.htm) by emphasizing praxis, alongside the typical Communist populist disdain for 'petty-bourgeois' professionalism.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Unfortunately not all written works are authored by Mao :crying: People shouldn't have to burden their eyes with such lesser lights

[Comrade Jacob]

It doesn't mean people should not be knowledgeable, Mao didn't fear the people being knowledgeable in fact education and knowledge was key to his society. It means that reading too many of the wrong books is harmful. As in reactionary text, anti-people text, bourgeois propaganda etc. If that's what gets into people's heads it can make an impact.





P.S (1,000 posts!)

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

It doesn't mean people should not be knowledgeable, Mao didn't fear the people being knowledgeable in fact education and knowledge was key to his society. It means that reading too many of the wrong books is harmful. As in reactionary text, anti-people text, bourgeois propaganda etc. If that's what gets into people's heads it can make an impact.





P.S (1,000 posts!)

Still doesn't make it sound any less baffling. This makes it sound like that whole 'power of positive thinking' stuff.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Ah, OK. It makes sense now. Reading and knowledge are fine, just don't read the "wrong books". :lol:

[Heilmann]

Still doesn't make it sound any less baffling.

well, such is the nature of aphorisms: to appear clear and understandable, but at the vary same time leave a plethora of unanswered questions. meditate on it, however, and accept its absolute validity and let it guide you through life like a shining light (or maybe a thousand splendid suns?), and its true meaning will come to you. supposedly.

[Jomo]

The point is that we should not read too many books. Meaning we shouldn't get caught up in pseudo-intellectual speculations based on book-knowledge. We should experience the world for real. This is an important aspect of communist thought. We can learn a lot more about our society from spending a week working than from reading books. So Maoism has always been very good at emphasising this. We must not be alienated from the production process. Office workers should spend some time on the fields and in the factories now and then. "Too many books" means less of real life contact with our work, our comrades, our struggle. Thus in the long run it is harmful to our revolutionary spirit.

[cyu]

I once played http://discworld.atuin.net and the god of the game had this as his personal quote: "If you hit a man over the head with a fish, he'll have a headache for a day. If you teach a man to hit himself over the head with a fish, he'll have headaches for the rest of his life."

This seems to be a retelling of an observation from some other famous guy (who I can't remember at the moment) that we don't learn *from* each other's mistakes, we *learn* each other's mistakes.

1. You are born with no preconceptions
2. You are taught things by the grown ups around you. Some of them are important and necessary. Some of them are wrong. Even some of the important and necessary things are wrong. But nobody can tell the difference.
3. You learn that the people you respected all your life aren't infallible.
4. You start to think for yourself. You start to question everything you ever learned.
5. If you become a successful revolutionary (maybe like Mao), you've actually succeeded in overturning ideas that you had previously been brainwashed with. As a result, you may become blessed / cursed with the same freethinking that you were born with, before grown ups beat it out of you.

[cyu]

Found him - this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Lynch