Bleeding Fiction

The late Japanese folklorist and bureaucrat Yanagita Kunio wrote that "The pursuit of knowledge should be socially useful." Scholars have the responsibility to take what they learn and make of the world a better place; they have the responsibility to seek to learn things that will help them do that. Likewise governments and organizations have the responsibility to make use of scholars to the same end.

Yanagita was calling for the crumbling of the ivory tower, that separate and enclosed world of academics where they only talk to each other and themselves. It's a world packed tight with bullshit and mental masturbation. It's people not even talking about things, but talking about ways to talk about those things.

I value learning. I'm arrogant. I'm an elitist and a snob. I've never claimed to be otherwise. But the thing is, I want everyone to be the elite. That's why I think everyone who wants an education deserves to have a great one. That's why I agree with Yanagita. I think, in part, education itself can make the world a better place. Teach people to think critically, teach people to learn and raise the level of public discourse. Do that and you give people a chance to make for themselves a better world.

But I think that the people who commit themselves to thought, who spend their lives chasing after knowledge, have a special responsibility to make sure their knowledge is "socially useful." I think, after a point, you just can't study for the sake of study or for fun or for the hell of it anymore. I think you have to be able to apply what you learn towards making the world a better place.

Now, keep in mind that I have a pretty loose definition of "a better place." I mean, I place a pretty high premium on entertainment, but I think that even the simplest of entertainments can have intellectual value. Fables and folktales are rarely complex, but they're the myths that generations before us lived by. I think any creator has the responsibility to apply their learning and create art that provokes thought. That doesn't have to be mutually exclusive from ratings or profits, either.

I hold the same standard to academics. Learn all you want. Debate back and forth with your similarly learned scholars. But at the end of the day, do something that's going to help out the world. If you're not, you're wasting your time. Or, to end as I began, with a quote, but to shift it from an academic to an entertainer, I'll steal Ani DiFranco's voice: "If you're not trying to make something better, then as far as I can tell you are just in the way."