beware anyone
who describes themselves as proud
non-reader of books
Did this really need to said?
YES IT DID!
Building on theme, If you want to be successful in this world, you have to develop your own idiot detection system,” raised by the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, recently in a commencement address to the Northwestern University Class of 2023, Guardian Columnist, Arwa Mahdawi put together her own list of five foolproof red flags to help identify idiots.
Ms. Mahdawi writes: So how do you spot an idiot? Well, says Pritzker, it’s not always easy. “I wish there was a foolproof way to spot idiots, but counterintuitively, some idiots are very smart. They can dazzle you with words and misdirection. They can get promoted above you at work,” Pritzker said. “They can even get elected president.”
“… it’s a shame, I think, that Pritzker didn’t elaborate further. I think we could all do with a bit more of a comprehensive guide, don’t you? So I’ve helpfully put together the beginnings of one.
Behold, five golden rules for spotting an idiot.”
Taking an easy way to fill a few days of my blog, I will highlight some of her five rules this week.
Rule Number 1: Beware of anyone who describes themselves as a “proud non-reader of books”
If someone boasts about being too smart for books, it’s a tell-tale sign they’re an idiot.
Exhibit one: Kanye West, who now goes by Ye.
“I am not a fan of books,” the rapper told an interviewer in 2009 as he did the press tour for his own book.
(Well, calling it a book is a stretch: it was a 52-page collection of his thoughts called Thank You and You’re Welcome.
Some of the pages were intentionally left blank and others just had a single “Kanye-ism” on it like: “I hate the word hate!” or “Get used to being used.”)
The problem with books, Ye went on, is that they’re generally too wordy.
“I am a proud non-reader of books,” he added.
Which goes a long way to explaining Ye’s recent descent into an antisemitic and white-nationalist rabbit hole.
I, for one have always loved books.
I, for one have always been sensitive to those who don’t.
Those who don’t and feel bad about it.
I worked for years in bookstores and libraries and there where those people who would come in and say, ‘Look, I don’t read. Can you help me.‘
And my heart went out to them.
When I managed a mall bookstore, I would caution my staff at Christmas that this was the time when we would be getting customers who would be shopping for someone else otherwise they would never be in a bookstore and that these folks might be anywhere from embarrassed to downright uncomfortable in a bookstore.
But there are those people I have met.
Those people with a disdain for reading.
Never read a book, never plan to read a book and never missed anything by not reading any book and, sad to say, proud of it.
I feel sorry for them.
I feel sorry for Mr. Ye.
One thing to be ignorant.
Quite another to be proud of being ignorant.
Non so blind I guess, as those who WILL not see.
As Garrison Keillor said, “… they didn’t learn much until the day they died. But they learned a whole lot the next day.”
I have been lucky.
And smart enough to be appreciate my luck.
I grew up in a family that read and in a house filled with books.
I am reminded of a time at the library where I was working when a Dad came in with his kid to get some information for a school report.
I don’t know what the Dad did for a living, but from his shoes, his hands and his dress, whatever he did for a living was hard work.
His son was being whiney as I helped them and set several books they had requested on their table where they were working.
As I walked away I heard the Dad say, ‘You can do the work with the books now, or you can do the work with your back later.’
The kid looked down for a bit.
Then he pulled at the pile of books and the Dad and his kid went to work together.
No Haiku For You 