I Know Enough To Be An Adult

When I was about 3 years old, my Uncles Jon and David wanted to teach me math. I'm sure it was a well-meaning effort to turn me into some kind of child genius.* I strongly resisted learning math, though. I wanted to play and sing and dance and color with my crayons. Probably I wanted to look at books, too. But, math? No. I didn't see the point.

When I got really tired of them bothering me about math I told them to go away with the declaration: "I know enough to be a kid."

I thought about that today. It was genius, really. I didn't need to know math when I was three years old, at least not anything beyond the basic counting of apples. It was my time to play and imagine and explore and have fun. It didn't serve a purpose, and it didn't help me create.

Then I thought about who I am now and how easily I get drawn into learning some new bit of information. Before these last few days, I have been constantly consuming information, and with the internet I was often consuming this information willy-nilly, based on what a friend posted on Facebook or what some company wanted to put in front of my eyes. Now after three days of not constantly consuming information, I don't miss it.

I know enough to be an adult.

I already know the information that I need to be able to get through today, and if something comes up that I need to know, I know where to find that information. I know how to make lunch, get to work, and do the work that I'm doing. I know how to write this blog entry.

What about politics?, you might say. That is an important consideration. I do believe that it is important to stay informed in order to make good political decisions and be an effective participant in political action. However, I also know enough to do both of those already.

First, I need to stay informed in order to make good political decisions. It's important to read up on issues. However, there is no need to take in the sheer amount of information that I usually do. Let's take the issue of private prisons. I read two in-depth articles on private prisons in trustworthy sources. They talked about the abuses in private prisons caused by poor training and scanty budgeting for healthcare, food and security among other things. They talked about how prison workers were being paid less to do jobs that had become more dangerous and less satisfying. Because I believe that all humans deserve safe living and working conditions and decent food and healthcare, I know that I am against private prisons. I shared the articles. I voted for the candidate with the most credible record against private prisons (Bernie Sanders). If I wanted to I could join an organization advocating against private prisons, since I have enough information on this issue. So what is the point in me reading another article about the abuses in private prisons?

This brings me to my second point - it's important to be an effective participant in political action. So, as I said above, I'm already informed enough on private prisons to know that I disagree with them. I'm therefore informed enough to take action against them. At this point reading an another article against private prisons is not necessary and is perhaps even counterproductive. Reading another article may actually just be a way to make me feel good about myself for sharing that article on Facebook or for even just knowing and agreeing with that information. At this point, it is much more productive to stop taking in information and to start taking action. The only reason I would need to know more information is if I  needed it to prepare to go to the offices of various representatives/senators and advocate against private prisons, or design my own flyer against private prisons to hand out, or write a letter to the editor on the topic, or run for office, etc. I have come to a place where the only reason to consume information would be in a targeted way designed towards taking a specific action.

By refusing to consume information non-stop, I'm realizing that a lot of my information consumption has become a dead-end. I know things, but unless I'm using that knowledge to do something in the world - even just to spread the information in a targeted way, it's a pretty useless activity. When I die, my knowledge will die with me, unless I create or take action.

In short, I know enough to be an adult. Now I've just got to try to be a better one.

*Even though they also tried to teach me how to say "I'm dumb, but I'm pretty." (They were adolescent boys; what are you gonna do?)

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