BEATING A DRUM - FISHER

Two young men full of piss and vinegar seeing the world as their oyster to conquer have entered the academia of university life, displaying the arrogance and immaturity of that ill-defined time in life unaware of the emotional and intellectual baggage they carry that prevents them from seeing anything much less their understanding of themselves or the ambivalent world they are about to enter. 

University life is an insulated culture and impediment to self-understanding as knowledge is the game and self-awareness has no place in that curriculum. Conceptual knowledge (i.e., sacrosanct words and ideas) proves a barrier rather than a vehicle to self-understanding, and maturity. Consequently, the student is frozen in self-indulgent immaturity until released from this environment be it after four, six, or more years of matriculation unprepared for life and the reality of experience at the age of 22, 24, 26, or older with the mindset of an 18-year-old. 

The exception is the student who lives off-campus, has a part-time job, and lives on his or her own, making decisions with parents no longer the primary nurturer. It is students immersed in university life, as are the faculty who think they see life clearly and can pontificate liberal or righteous theories about existence when what they experience is hardly that. 

A Socratic professor told his student, “Forget everything that you have been taught and you will be on your way to wisdom and understanding.”

 The student was astonished. “But why have I spent six years developing my professional credentials?”

 The professor replied, “Because that knowledge will surface when you face the problems of your profession as an adult. The knowledge is there in the reservoir of your understanding.” 

The professor paused and studied the young man. “Are you familiar with the Law of the Reversed Effect?” 

The student nodded, “No, what is that?” 

“The harder you try to succeed the less you do; the more you attempt to belong the less you are; the more you attempt to relax the tenser you become; the more you concentrate the less you see clearly what is right before your eyes.” 

The student was now totally confused. “What are you saying?” 

“Let go of your mind, trust it for the wisdom and understanding it possesses. The knowledge needed to solve your problems is in the toolkit of your subconscious. Relax, let the mind slow down. Take a pause. Quit thinking about what worked before, what you have been taught. See not with your mind but with your mind’s eye. Remember, then is dead to the now as concentration is the victim of the hypnotic mind.

 “When knowledge is substituted for wisdom, it is like beating a drum in search of a fugitive, captive to a synthetic existence in a state of helplessness.” 

Dirk and Harry personify this state.