Let me start by saying I'm not talking about formal education or degrees. When I ask 'Do you want to learn?' I'm asking if you feel a desire to know more about the world around you, and to know the truth about the world around you. When you hear an 'I don't know' does it somehow sound bitter to you? With the ease of access to information these days, shouldn't we be able to eliminate most 'I don't know' from their life?
This question comes from an insight I had in a recent session with my therapist. I want to know everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. I want to know everything about every hard science, I want to know about every advance in medicine as soon as it's been proven beyond casual or unrelated correlation. I want to know the history of every civilization man has record of, the motivations of great leaders and demagogues. I want to know every philosophy, it's effects on it's followers and the real world. I want to know every magicians every trick. My therapist posits that this comes from an inherent personal curiosity. (What he sees as a positive trait) I think it comes from fear. Everyone copes with things differently, I cope by knowledge acquisition. I grew up with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, and coped with the fear by learning everything I can about it, to the point where I am an active participant in every research project that can use me, and am trying to get a job with the research clinic in Ann Arbor that has treated me since I was young.
I want to learn, because the alternative is terrifying. Because 'I don't know(with the implication of I don't care)' is the most evil thing I can think of.
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I just get this feeling that one day I'll have learned enough, I'll get that one fact/theory into my brain that will catalyze the rest. It will all just make sense and I won't be afraid anymore.