Wise Sage...

[SoldierofFortune]

do you know anyone around you who is a wise sage?
it's told that there were a lot in former times...
no matter people know in general, there is a lack of wisdom...

[stromboli]

do you know anyone around you who is a wise sage?
it's told that there were a lot in former times...
no matter people know in general, there is a lack of wisdom...

Can you say Wikiquote?

[SoldierofFortune]

Can you say Wikiquote?

For what?

[stromboli]

For what?

For wise sage, grasshopper.

[stromboli]

Sorry if I'm coming across as snarky, but think about it. What constitutes a wise sage? The Buddha? Lao tzu? Confucius? None of these were more than men with opinions until somebody wrote what they said down and people saw wisdom in it.  I've seen just as much wisdom from George Carlin and Christopher Hitchens as anyone else I can think of. Noam Chomsky? Not my kinda guy. Wisdom is whatever strikes a chord with the listener and pauses one to think. You can quote mine (wikiquote) anyone and come up with wisdom. This is the information age. The concept of a wise sage doesn't necessarily translate to current times when you can pick and choose your wisdom from so many different sources. Just my opinion.

[aitm]

Unfortunately, I am the closet thing I know to a wise sage…..sad indeed.

[doorknob]

Can I get a wise mage instead?

[Unbeliever]

I'm the wisest person I know, and that scares the hell out of me!

[Baruch]

I'm the wisest person I know, and that scares the hell out of me!

Actually my casual observation reinforces the idea that ... you are smart ;-)

[Baruch]

What is wisdom?  Knowing facts is knowledge (even if facts about fictional things).  Understanding what you know means dropping the separation between subject/object a bit.  Wisdom is dropping that subject/object completely.  Example ...

If a Palestinian would sincerely try to imagine what it is like to be an Israeli ... and if an Israeli would sincerely try to imagine what it is like to be a Palestinian ... then for those two the result would be peace.  If enough Palestinians and Israelis did that ... then there would be a greater peace.  Because then making war against Palestinians ... would be as unthinkable to an Israeli, as making war against a fellow Israeli.  And peace would be evidence that wisdom hasn't completely died.

Warmongers are not peaceful.  Warmongers are not wise ... but are usually war profiteers like Dick Cheney.

But our precious egos, and profound bigotries won't let us call each other brother/sister.  Notice there is nothing in wisdom that isn't about people.  Wisdom isn't about knowing Quantum Field Theory.

Unfortunately most people deny the facts.  Also most fact based people don't have understanding ... because it is real hard.  I am still studying, 40 years later, stuff from college that I didn't understand.  And wisdom is much rarer than that.  MLK was wise.  Abraham Joshua Heschel was wise.  There are never enough people like that.  But just one of those people, at the right place, right time ... change history for the better.

[aitm]

I am a pretty good trivia buff, but when some people asked me to join their team because, "you are really smart" I told them, "a good memory does not make one intelligent". And I really didn't want to be on a "team". My "team" consist of me and one gal, we normally kick the butts of 6-8 member teams, but the truth there is she is the "smart" one. I just drink beer and question her answers which are nearly always correct.

[SGOS]

A wise sage is a somewhat elderly male, probably with a unique beard, who sits on a rock in the middle of nowhere with his hands resting on a walking stick between his legs and pontificates something that sounds almost intelligible to anyone who passes by.

[aitm]

A wise sage is a somewhat elderly male, probably with a unique beard, who sits on a rock in the middle of nowhere with his hands resting on a walking stick between his legs and pontificates something that sounds almost intelligible to anyone who passes by.

I haven't actually seen a picture of Baruch but it sounds just like him..
:08:

[Baruch]

I haven't actually seen a picture of Baruch but it sounds just like him..
:08:

The World's Most Interesting Man ... from the Dos Equis beer commercial ... that is me, only more handsome.  And I do have a walking stick.  I am also wise enough to prefer whiskey to beer ;-)

[TomFoolery]

it's told that there were a lot in former times...

A few hundred years ago (former times), most people couldn't read or write. I'm aware that education, knowledge and wisdom aren't the same thing, but they do intersect at times. It's one thing to be wise, but to be wise and be remembered it certainly helps if you can write it down.

For example, people lament we don't have any great thinkers anymore like Thomas Jefferson or James Madison. I disagree: I think we have far more today. They were part of an educated elite and compared to their modern day peers, they were big fish in a small pond. Thanks to wide access to elementary education and the Internet, that small pond has become an ocean, and all modern thinkers are shouting into the same medium and a lot of information is lost/ignored.