——Wang Xiaobo's "The Silent Majority"

The above sentence was taken from the Internet. I know the words and understand the meaning, but some of it subverts the previous cognition. How can there be wisdom? It is worthless. Wisdom is intelligence. You can teach and teach apprentices. Wisdom can trade stocks and futures. Wisdom has more ways to make money. Wisdom is wealth.

I am somewhat wise, that is, when I encounter something I don’t understand, I ask Baidu.

So I searched Baidu on the Internet. There are many and colorful interpretations of this famous saying, but I can’t agree on one. After reading it, I feel even more confused.

A sentence, viewed alone and in isolation, can sometimes lead to misunderstandings. What Wang Xiaobo wants to say depends on the original work. So, I found the original text and read it.

When excerpting this sentence, I said that this sentence is from "The Silent Majority". There is nothing wrong with this sentence, but there are some problems. "The Silent Majority" is a book by Wang Xiaobo The name is also the name of an article in the book, but this sentence is not a sentence in the article "The Silent Majority", but a sentence in another article in the book "Wisdom and Chinese Studies".

To be honest, this article by Wang Xiaobo, like some of his other articles, is not so easy to understand. Children who have not graduated from junior high school may find it difficult to read it.

This sentence was hidden a bit deep, and I only found it after reading it twice.

Of course, it’s a rough read.

The article begins with a talk about horses and donkeys, followed by mules, and a large number of foreigners, including Edison, Siemens, Maxwell Faraday, Mark Twain, Russell, and Socrates. Wait, it feels quite noisy.

But the meaning is basically clear. In fact, the entire article is talking about the issue of usefulness or not, or criticizing the Chinese people for being too utilitarian in their pursuit of knowledge, learning, and other things.

The article gives several examples of studying knowledge.

When Euclid was teaching geometry, a student asked him, what benefits can this knowledge bring to me? Euclid immediately arranged for the slave to give him a dollar and ridiculed the student: This gentleman wants to find benefits from learning!

After Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction and demonstrated it to others, a lady asked: What is the use of this thing? Faraday asked: What is the use of a newly born child?

According to Chinese logic, students and ladies ask very correct and reasonable questions. What is knowledge if it is applied? What is useless knowledge?

This is the strength and problem of the Chinese people. In fact, it is not just Chinese people, there are people like this in other countries, and even most people are like this.

This sentence is from Wang Xiaobo's article, in which he said that it was Socrates who said it.

The article also quoted some words and deeds of other celebrities. For example, Mr. Russell said that he was in favor of pursuing objective truth regardless of success or failure; For example, I read from the book that Mencius once got some happiness from speculation; for example, when a man named Wittgenstein looked back on his intellectual activities in his life when he was dying, he said: Tell them that I lived a wonderful life.

In short, learning, in the eyes of some sages, is extremely joyful. This is the value and significance of pursuing wisdom, rather than the actual benefits of real money.

Many people, including me, also understand this issue. Many of the pains in life do come from the entanglement of usefulness and uselessness. For example, with the current educational involution problem, children are in pain, parents are very anxious, and the country is very worried. In the final analysis, it stems from over-utilitarianism from top to bottom.

A few days ago, I read an article in which several scientists talked about what science is and what technology is. This issue was also involved in it, and it may be more specific.

The problem is that many times, people are in a situation where they can’t help themselves.

We are all ordinary people, and we do not have such a high realm or position. We have to eat, drink, have sex, have basic necessities, have food, clothing, shelter, and food, rice, oil, and salt. Many times, it is inevitable that we will look at problems from the perspective of usefulness or futility.

But no matter how helpless the reality is, I feel that Wang Xiaobo’s words above are very meaningful.

No matter what you do, you should first consider whether it is useful or not. It is really boring.

I have read an article criticizing Wang Xiaobo's article, which selected some sentences to refute. Looking at the refuting essay from the perspective of a scientific research paper is like finding fault with an egg, which is quite boring.

Those who are interested can find the original text and read it.