On The Acquisition of Knowledge (And, If You're Lucky, a Smidgeon of Wisdom)

In response to this:

http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2012/11/hipsters_on_food_stamps.html

A poster called Joe Young asks: ‘Can you really take every class at MIT and Yale online? How much does that cost?’

He gets a rather good response:’It’s free. Check out MIT’s OpenCourseWare, and Open Yale Courses’

An anonymous poster whines:’Nobody knows who that is.’
At this point I raise my eyes heavenward and type the following: ‘Try looking at your iTunes.  (Winston Churchill’s speeches are on there too).’

When Margaret Thatcher entered Downing Street in 1979 a journalist asked a rather obvious question: ‘How does it feel to be the first female prime minister in Downing Street?’

After pointing out that she had no other basis for comparison, Margaret Thatcher alerted the journalist to the fact that she was also the first science graduate in Downing Street. Her predecessors had mostly been humanities graduates.

The only cure for ignorance is knowledge and generally it doesn’t come to find you. You have to seek it out.

Is it worth commenting on the fact that there are many great historical figures who never graduated from university? Orwell was one of them. They didn’t think he was bright enough to attend. Imagine that? Methinks that maybe they weren’t bright enough for him.

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Tags: Downing, Downing Street, itunes, Joe Young, Margaret Thatcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Open Yale Courses, Prime minister, science, Winston Churchill, Yale University