Books Are Old News! So Is DPN!

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is educational ignorance. Whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories, games are to be played, ASL does not include voicing…one must first answer!

While a graduate student at American University in Washington, D.C., I got lost in one of my professor’s classes. I struggled in understanding what he was covering but I couldn’t simply match anything he said with what I read. I decided to meet with him in his office to discuss my hardships of graduate studies. I told him I’d read all required books but I couldn’t seem to sew in any of them in the classroom discourses. He smiled and told me: “Books are old news!”

I was like WOW! His answer was that simple: “Books are old news!” If I were to ask myself how to judge such a book, I quickly learned to judge the book by the words it contains. I also learned that these words are written to create or poison something. A Greek philosopher Plato’s own ambivalence about writing is well known because it meant death of Socrates’ philosophy as well as birth of Aristotelian follies.

In Plato’s Phaedrus, there is a mythic debate over writing between Thoth and Thamus. Thoth argues for the advantages of written literacy, but Thamus counters that writing leads to a false wisdom. Today, for example, we are watching a huge struggle between The Vatican City and the world of Muslims. The battle of scriptures!

Here’s another example: Today we are reading some posts from alumni across the nation and abroad about their direct or indirect involvement in the 1988 Deaf President Now demonstration. We thought it was for the best. However, let’s face the truth: DPN is old news! DPN has lost its own wisdom! We are no longer ignorant!