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Have you ever imagined it? A world without the written word? I have never because all I think about is intellectual extinction. And that makes me shudder. It makes me shudder real bad. Ever heard this quote:
A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only once.
If you are a reader like me, you will understand this quote. Books breathe life into my intellect and mind, but more than that it has transported me to alternate countries, worlds, cultures, and tastes through a book. Books refurbish your ideologies, expose you to alternative ways of thinking, and cause your mind to gain some level of respect.
Books are the pathway to knowledge, and knowledge is something that must be sought after like a hidden treasure because it is the biggest golden resource of the world. It is the life of the mind and the fuel of the intellect. The engine behind every innovation that has ever existed since the beginning of time. Imagine if the texts of the great minds perished. If Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Galileo, and the rest never authored their thoughts, doctrines, principles, beliefs, and ideologies? Intellectualism would never light. Intelligence would never exist as a concept, and I can barely imagine the state of society. We would have no source of inspiration.
For intrinsic ideas to develop, extrinsic ideas are necessary. This principle applies to all kinds of thinking: economic, political, cultural, social, etc. The study of a field like International Relations, for instance, is dominated by theories and concepts that have been developed for centuries. But to date, there are still contestations and debates by scholars who propound theories that arise from their varying ideological orientations. However, if they didn’t have extrinsic ideas, if they didn’t have a foundation, something to read from, their critical thinking would have been stagnated.
We build a lot of things upon books. The very civilization is of the world itself inclusive. Life would still be highly primitive if books never existed. Yes, someone might argue that humankind’s level of development is because of his exclusive ability to think. But that ability still exists today because of the existence of books. Books have made knowledge spread faster, and they have given us the gift of collective learning. Education is one way to break out of vicious cycles of poverty, lack of development, and opportunities. How is education achieved again? Did I hear you say through books that are instrumental to the educative process?
In several Third World countries, illiteracy makes up part of their many problems. Even the Bible tells us how imperative knowledge is. Oh, and the Bible is one of the greatest books on Earth, by the way. Forget humans for a bit. Even spiritual entities understood the power of the written word that’s why the Bible exists. Books are timeless knowledge reservations that have crossed the world just so we may gain a conscious understanding of other situations, ideologies, cultures, and people other than ourselves. They are ways by which we can comprehensively understand our past to build ourselves better futures.
I have met many shallow people. People with no creativity, intellect, or imagination. They all always have one thing in common – they never read. Now just imagine if everyone was like that. It’d be a stunted, limited world that’s only concerned with the most superficial things. The imbalance between the developed world and the rest of the world has a lot to do with intelligence. It’s like Plato said. Wisdom and political greatness must meet and intermix before cities can reach their fullest potential. From what I know about some of the greatest leaders who have walked this Earth? They read heavily. They fed their minds greatly with knowledge and use that knowledge to become immortalized in unforgettable legacies.
Why do authors pen down their thoughts? Why do readers read? To unwind, reflect, to be challenged, entertained, or transported into other worlds. Imagine a world where these reasons didn’t exist? Where everyone was locked in the stunted recesses of their mind? Imagine a repressive world like George Orwell’s 1984. Or Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games. Or Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New world where people are instantly contented with everything. If you have read even just one of these books, you’ll understand what a nightmarish world it would be.
What about the fact that we would never be introduced to strong fictional characters? I love characters with depth, and we can only find them in books. We only make them into movies, so they seem a lot more real. Sidney Sheldon’s Constantin Demiris, Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne, and J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter are classic unforgettable characters that the world loved. They emanated from books.
Nations operate via a book – The Constitution. Not an ordinary book, of course, but a book. We document the ethics of every profession in the written word. The principles, doctrines, and knowledge guiding these professions are etched forever in books. Religions live by the holy books. Americans can read about the history of Mozambique thanks to books. The Asians can understand the Industrial revolution thanks to books. One generation doesn’t have to make the mistake of the last because they can read about their successes and failures from a book. Books are critical to our world whether we all know it or not, whether we all recognize it or not.
I worry that with so much happening in our world, their relevance is diminishing. I hope we will always remember that books must continually thrive if intellectual wealth must continue to flourish. Books are necessary if we want to keep our stories alive. If we want our voices to be heard. If we never want collective learning to go into extinction. A world without books would be drab, unintelligent, boring, and underdeveloped. It’s not a world I even want to imagine not to talk of existing in.
Finally, according to Chinua Achebe, the late acclaimed Nigerian author of Things Fall apart. (One of the most famous novels in the world), once said:
The triumph of the written word is attained when a writer achieves union and trust with the reader who then becomes ready to be drawn deep into unfamiliar territory, walking in borrowed literary shoes so to speak, toward a deeper understanding of self, or of society, or of foreign peoples, cultures, and situations.
We can only achieve this in a world where books exist.
And I’m glad that books exist in this one.