CLAUD

Friday, April 02, 2010

realism

What is the real life implication of all the knowledge that I have inside me? Doctors and Nurses study to save lives. Engineers study to make our living world a better place. Lawyers help us to get even with problematic people like my uncle.

What do Geographers do? (Or Sociologist for that [double-major] matters)

I think what we do transcend above practical matters. The fact that we think and question our present way of life, the assumptions we make, do impact people's lives on a level that is beyond the physical. Our ideas change how doctors heal, change our engineers see problems, and it could even change the laws themselves. It is a fundamental improvement to society.

Yet, it is also important to stay 'rooted' into reality and make ourselves relevant to the subjects of study. We cannot simply stay aloof, coming up with new theories, new ideas and new papers (of which half of the population probably won't understand very much). I often feel a disconnect between the present condition, and what I have learnt in University. So what's the problem?

Precisely because life is complex, it takes more than a sweeping statement to explain it to someone on the streets. So we have an army of academics, with their collective efforts armed with ink and printers, to improve our lives...however, we don't feel it. We hardly can see what is being done. I appreciate the complex ideas, and I think it can help us better our lives. The problem I see is that it's not translated into understandable ideas to the lay-person.

Perhaps, it's our turn to bring universities to the people, instead of bringing people to the universities.

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I just wanna say that this post was inspired by nat and kris's conversation about helping old people in the hospitals...and then i realised how the implications of my professor's research is so important on them. It can affect them so much...how they heal, how they carry out their jobs etc.

22:13