Retraction...

So my better half has a really great way of reeling me in.
Especially when I don't think I need to be.

Perhpas my previous post should have rea something more like,

Knowledge on it's own is potential energy.
A spring compressed.

Experience on it's own is uncontrolable energy.
A ricochet boucing aimlessly off the walls.

Knowledge and the wisdom of application combined is kinetic energy and is to be strived for.
Perhpas not to be used to make a living, but used in whatever way a person sees fit.

Which is hard for me to say.
The root of my previous post is based in idealism.
And I hate idealists, so I guess it 's hypocritical of me.

Either way, I don't think anyone would disagree that education and experience combined is the most powerful type of knowledge.
To truly understand something and to know it fully you must understand and know the application.

Knowledge is Power?

Or is knowledge on it's own vanity?
Why are there so many people paying several years salary to educate themselves on subjects that are irrelevant to their lives.

Here's a bunch of my money now give me my degree.
My degree that I won't use for anything.
My degree that everyone else who went to college just because that's what you do after high school has, so it doesn't even distinguish me from anyone / anything.
But at least I'm educated now...
And that means I'm smart, and entitled, and better than those who don't have one right?

Application of knowledge and learning from one's experiences is power.
Education for the sake of education is vanity and a waste of resources.

Smart is generally taken for two meanings, educated and wise, book smart and street smart.
True that anyone of these without a hint of the other is worthless, but I think one would be better to have more wisdom than education, and not the other way around.
Which goes against the status quo that I have obverved, and perhaps the route of any problems you may or may not ackowledge this country has.

Men began with very little knowledge, by the grace of God and trial and error have we come this far, and out of street smarts, wisdom, experience, have we come far enough to have men so greatly experienced that they can educate others.

However, a man with all the degrees all the money in this world can buy, but fails to learn or figure out how to apply any of it, is useless, vain, and a waste.

And so we come to a society where men with both education and wisdom are scarce. Men with knowledge and no experience hand down orders through countless middle men to men with much experience but no knowledge of how to turn it into wisdom, and resentment grows on both sides, and this is the beginning of end of men.

There is no solace in this world, there is nothing good to be had by putting your treasure here.
Look higher.

History's Greatest Tragedy

Is that the world's greatest ideas eventually get written off as cliches.

Example:
Negative Approach forms circa 1981 and is one of the first to introduce a new sound referred to as "mosh." This sound was so influential and liked that even to this day, you can't walk into a local hardcore / punk show without hearing it at least once in every band's set.
At the time it was mind blowing, but show some 16 year old know-nothing kid Ready to Fight, and he'll just tell you it sounds like an Outbreak song.

Same thing can be said for various music greats, influencing the music world so greatly that everything after it takes something from it, making anyone who wasn't around before said influence callous to it.

Another Example:
The custom car and motorcycle culture (I'm not hip enough to spell it Kulture and not feel like a poser). Truly an avenue where nothing is new, it's all been done, and if it hasn't, there's probably a reason for it. However every once in a while a new perspective will be taken on a classic genre of customs that will turn said culture upside down and shift what is popular. Most recently early 60's styled bikes are everywhere, and while I personally like most of it, I can see it getting old.

I will be the first one to admit that I'm still fairly new to the motorcycle scene, and that this resurgence of early choppers is what really hooked me, so I wasn't around really before hand, but I can see it turning already. I've read enough articles and seen a few movies that are a little dated, showcasing bikes that are still more or less "in style" but hipsters and trend setter might find a little cliche. If you check the date, they were doing this 60's thing while everyone else was doing the flat black and white wall rock a billy thing (or worse... billet big tire things), so at the time it was fresh. Fast forward 5-10 years and now it's played out already. Period correct is the new thing, NOS parts are sky rocketting, and even that is already seeing it's first signs of getting overdone.

This is a topic that could be expanded upon for many many more paragraphs, and by people far more knowledgeable and involved than I so I'll end this one here.

But the biggest tradgedy for me,

Simple teachings like "Love your neighbor as yourself" and the concept of sacrifice and enduring hardships are now cliche. Saying something like "the night is always darkest before the dawn" to your buddy who just caught his old lady cheating on him and he's been on a bender for 2 weeks will probably get you punched in the mouth.

People love to come up with catch phrases, summing up entire schools of thought into a sentence. The best catch phrases catch on, and soon become lame, out dated, and totally ignored cause it's something your Grandmother used to say to your Dad when he got in trouble or was having a hard time. So not only do we not listen to them, we tend to intentionally do the oppositte, wanting to be an induvidual, and desiring to make our own mold.

Tell you what the problem with that is... as mentioned before... it's all been done before! (Look, another cliche phrase!) But it's true. Do you really think you're the first person to rebel against conventional wisdom? The human race has been around long enough to pretty much come up with every cheap way out of a situation, commit every dispicable act, display of "individualism," and even the right way to do things! The formula was laid out for us a loooong time ago, and it didn't take long for people who knew better than everyone else to screw it up.

Proverbs attributes gray hair as a crown of wisdom on a man's head. Last played out phrase I promise... with age comes wisdom. Maybe Gramps knows a thing or three... maybe the next time an old timer has some words of rebuttal for the way you're living, even if it's in a phrase you heard on the andy griffith show, pay attention.

There is no Light at the End of the Tunnel

Simply because there is no tunnel. Life is not an arrow straight linear path where you can see everything coming at you, so you shouldn't expect to be able to see good times on their way. Just like things can turn sour at any second, things can also change for the better without warning.

I also feel compelled to announce that the secret to being happy is that there is no secret. If you are a human being living on planet earth you will not always be happy. Some days you will hate your job, argue with your spouse over petty matters, or be just plain grumpy for no reason. Such days exist so you have something to compare happy moments to. If the entire world resided at 29,029 feet above sea level, mount everest would be nothing more than just another patch of real estate. You need bad days to make good days special.

Our race as a whole needs to learn how to keep our nose to the grindstone and quit whining about every miniscule mole hill that quickly gets turned into a mountain. Everyone has problems. How you deal with them will be how you are remembered.