books vs real life experience--your opinion

[danyboy27]

i told a certain person i would stop posting stuff, i lied fuck it.

i used to be someone who read like 1 book a week, then i started to work, and its kidda stopped there, But i feel i learned more on communism and social struggle by working than by reading any book.

what are your opinion on real life experience vs theorical knowledge?
do you think that a person that read less is necessarly an ignorant person?

for myself, i think it can play in balence, but overall, i dont think the person doing manual labor is less wise/more ignorant than a person doing his university degree.

[Algernon]

I don't think the two have to be at odds with each other. In fact, I would say that theoretical knowledge and practical experience inform each other.

Also, I don't think this statement is entirely accurate:


i dont think the person doing manual labor is less wise/more ignorant than a person doing his university degree.

It depends on what you are using to make the comparison. Overall general knowledge? I would probably agree with you there. But each is probably more wise than the other in his specialized field.

[danyboy27]

It depends on what you are using to make the comparison. Overall general knowledge? I would probably agree with you there. But each is probably more wise than the other in his specialized field.

i agree with you, its pure logic. Still, there is a mindset that still circulating saying that people doing manual labor are dumb and shit.
when i say to people i work in a warehouse after 45 min of discussion on politics and the world situation, they are staring at me like i was an alien or something.

Personally, i dont care, deskjob suck, i tried those, and personally i could not stand it.

[Anti Freedom]

The forms of knowledge are different.

I would say that a person who is less read is usually an ignorant person, as experiential knowledge is often more crude than theoretical knowledge. Some experiences are so profound that by which we understand things deeply, but that is not the majority.

[Comradetyr]

Books can show things that a person hasn't experienced, not too the full extent but more so if they haven't had that experience. So a factory worker who has no opportunity to go to school will be knowledgeable of the students situation. It's the same way they they let you escape to another world of some sort well you read them.

[mikelepore]

But i feel i learned more on communism and social struggle by working than by reading any book.

Conservatives have the same experiences that we have but then come to completely different conclusions about what it all means.

When writing a book, you can say exactly what conclusions you're pointing to and explain how you arrived at them.

[Killfacer]

Both are important but similarly to you, once i started full time work i have learnt a lot more about the reasons for class struggle, not just idealism.

On the other hand books can often give you an insight into something you are unlikely to ever know about or give you a new veiw about different subjects. Most books i read are admittedly fictional and i read them for enjoyment not enlightenment but i do enjoy reading political journals etc.

[RGacky3]

for myself, i think it can play in balence, but overall, i dont think the person doing manual labor is less wise/more ignorant than a person doing his university degree.

Maybe not less wise, but chances are more ignorant, that being said sometimes people can't use their education in context, which is where wisdom comes in.

When it comes to class struggle you can read about it, and you think "yeah, wow," but its not real to you, its more kind good stories, when you experience it, you realize, "man those books were not hyperbolies." YOu start realizing class struggle is VERY real. But thats just experience, books help you understand things that maybe you can't experience, I have experience class struggle just on a small scale, and very limited, when I read about Big Corporations, international power plays, mass struggle in the third world, it definately allows to understand things better.

About intellligence, knowledge, understanding and wisdom are different things, its been explained to me like this: Knowledge is knowing your on a train track and a train is comming, understanding is knowing that if you stay on the tracks the train will hit you and you'll die, wisdom is getting off the tracks.

A lot of ignorant people have a lot of understanding and wisdom given what they know, a lot of very learned people have very little understanding and wisdom on what they know.

[danyboy27]

i think its the duty of every worker, regardless of his job to be informed of what happen in the world and what happen in your city, and to make coherent analisys about it, beccause history always affect us.

its just too bad this practice is not widespread amongst my co-worker.

life is boring sometimes when youa re the only one that actually care about the somali pirates that seized a super tanker, a elivry of t-72 and a chemical container in less than 2 month.

[RGacky3]

How is it his duty?

[Dóchas]

by reading books i could sort of prepare you for what you experience in the real world

eg.if someone challenged your beliefs could refer to a certain text to use in your defence

[Bud Struggle]

How is it his duty?

There will be no Revolution without an informed Proletariat.

Thank God we have Brittany Spears and American Idol to inform them!

TomK:redstar2000:

[Ele'ill]

Books are great for back story, essays are great for hearing someone's personal spin on a topic and both can greatly influence someone. I would have to say I've learned more through a hands on approach although this is a trait unique to myself. If i'm in a discussion involving politics at work and people from both sides are spouting historical dates and names and situations it puts me off because you immediately have to consider all the historical nuances surrounding every event. I rely more on philosophical or logical insight of the actual situation whatever it may be. If I can come up with several examples of something that happened regarding worker's rights violations at the company i'm working for within the last week it means more to me than being able to come up with historical facts. Although, history is relative as I don't consider events during my life time to be historical and this is probably a flaw of mine.

[danyboy27]

Tomk really said it, we need to be informed of what happening to the world in order to truly understand it, and eventually change it.

i am one of the fews lucky that actually got the bbc world tv chain on my cable and watch it, and if 65% would actually take 1 hour of their day to just look how fucked up the things are, they would realize something.

in my block, i am the only one knowing what happening in israel, i am the only one aware of the israeli blockade, i am the only one knowing that the egyptian decided to stop giving oil to israel, i am the only one knowing that the palestinian use rocket made of car parts to bomb israel.

that shit goes on and on and on.

if the worker would know what kind of shit happen, they would vote left more often.


i may continue reading history book and military book soon, but i devifinitively gave up for now about political book, or to be precise, certain political books.

i am just fed up of those ''we know how to fix all the glitch!'' books.

[RGacky3]

Its not no ones Duty to do anything, I don't like that notion, if someone reads and wants to change then good, I applaud him, but if someone is content not trying to change anything and jhust sit on his ass and eat popcorn, I'm not gonna judge him and say its his duty to be a revolutionary.

That being said I do wish more people would take it up.

[Hiero]

It depends on the subject.

Like in the thread about Communism and gun ownership, it was a theoritical question. You can't know what will happen in that situation from general chat on a forum nor from an practical knowledge. Some people tried to predict based on the current attitudes and feelings towards guns, it is impossible to predict human organisations based on ideas in another social system.

This is the same for having a scientific or sociological understanding of society and history. It is impossible to get a deeper and materialist undersanding from just pratical experinces. As that experince is insignficant compared to the history of class society. There is no way around it, to understand the philosophical, sociological and scientific question about human society you need to dedicate a signifiant time to read works from people who have dedicated most of their life to indepth and long periods of study in their specific field. Your time spent study must also be structured, study needs to start at the lower rung, at the basics so you can understand this basics when they are used without any reference in the later and more sophisticated works.

However on the other hand there is knowledge that is completly practical. Such as knowing how to work in the unions and work place as a Communist or activist. Or knowledge on the activist scene in general, party work, community etc.

[PostAnarchy]

Theorical knowledge must go hand in hand with real life experience. One enforces the other so a wonderful theory is meaningless without real world application and verification. This is what separates fantasy from reality and truth from fiction.

[Rascolnikova]

There will be no Revolution without an informed Proletariat.

Thank God we have Brittany Spears and American Idol to inform them!

TomK:redstar2000:

No shit. :)


I think if you just compare experiential vs. book knowledge, what is better can only be determined case by case. There are university graduates who are incredibly stupid about anything that might matter--including within their chosen field--and there are non-formally educated workers who fit the stereotype and are crude and unreflective. Similarly, very insightful and brilliant individuals can be found in either group, however limited they may be by unbalance.

What we should really be after, though, is not just a balance of both, but deep and constant connection between the two. There is profound power in the space where theory and practice unite. Theory that accurately describes reality can not help but resonate with people, creating an internal recognition they can not deny without refuting their own senses and themselves.

The revolutionary who completely inhabits their theory can not help but create change, if only among those they directly come in contact with. Authenticity, honesty, and good faith are so rare that they make an impact under almost any circumstances; combined with penetrating insight, they become unforgettable.


Edit: It's worth noting that, predictably, a reactionary who completely inhabits their theory--like Tom here--has a similarly memorable and cohesive feeling to them. . . and as such, will--predictably--create more of the same.