Thursday, September 8, 2022

Know Yourself - the wisest words ever written?

 “Know Yourself”. In my opinion these are the wisest words ever written. They were written over the entrance to the temple at Delphi about 300BC. My interpretation is that, because we grow up in a relatively isolated social group, we all have built in (learnt) prejudices, bias’s and delusions based on our groups poor knowledge of other social groups and the world outside of our it's experience. These warp our thinking to that of the group, which helps social cohesion, but means that we do not see the world as it really is, but as others want us to see it, or how we would like it to be. However, if you can understand these prejudices, and, delusions and also acknowledge the limits of your knowledge, ie know yourself, then in later life you can compensate, and under stand the world with a greater degree of accuracy. Achieve this ie understanding the present, and predicting the future becomes simple. 

Ironic, isn’t it that the Ancient Greeks came from all over to consult with the oracle, and the key to prediction was written over the front gate for all to see! 

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As for the greatest book ever written, well I've not read them all, but the best one I've read is Don Quixote, which I recommend unreservedly. Plenty of reviews are available but I loved the humorous style that entertains as well as presenting the complexities of being a human being who wants to do good in the world, after a life time of reading a load of rubbish!!!

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