Smart, But is Man Wise?
Man often believes he is smart in his actions but how far indeed he is from wisdom!!
Years ago, in the dark age of exorbitant cost of phone usage in Nigeria, a young man sat by his friend, amazed; watching him, speaking for hours on the phone with a party in USA.
As the friend dropped the phone, the young man could not but ask; how in the world could the party in USA, who initiated the call afford to pay for such an extended international call! His friend replied, self-assuredly that it’s a simple matter. “The other party did not have to pay”.
How?
Chuckling, the friend replied that, the moment he dropped the phone, the party in USA would simply input a set of numbers on to the phone and the charges would automatically be passed over to the phone company. Smart, Isn’t?
Without giving it a second thought, the young man agreed that it was indeed a smart move.
Years later, the young man got an opportunity to emigrate from Nigeria to USA. He could not but be amazed at the level of organization, the respect for Law and Order, the level of comfort and all. Everything works as it should. But he could not wait to make phone calls to his friends at home and pass the charges on to the phone company. So he made a call on his cousin (his host)’s land line and confidently asked him to show him the numbers he should input on to the phone to transfer the charges on to the phone company.
His cousin looked at him, bewildered. “Where did you hear that?” He exclaimed. “There is nothing like that. How do you expect the phone company to survive if there are ways of passing the bills on to them? You can’t beat the system.”
Ashamed of himself, the young man wondered how he could have believed such a “Cock and Bull Story”
What an awakening! An awakening to an awareness of conditioned mind set; conditioned by the society. He got ’t now! That was smartness devoid of wisdom; recipe for disharmony, disorganization, retrogression and suffering!
There, he truly experienced the depth of the saying; “We don’t live in sins and expect the Blessings of the Almighty to rain upon us.”
Some so called smart actions of man are indeed lacking in wisdom.
One is to board a train, barring one’s way onto the subway are the turnstiles, low enough for one to jump over. Within seconds one weighs the possibilities with the intellect. Smart is to jump over the turnstiles and keep the fare. And One does it without any issue. Smart or an expressway to disruption and disharmony? It’s smartness devoid of wisdom.
What about the many cases of Quid Pro Quo and the Kickbacks?
The government has approved the total cost of a community project as tendered by the contractor. But the government official, who is to release the funds wants his palm greased with ten percent of the cost before he can sign off on the release. Smartness backed by wisdom?
With his belief that he needs more land than is at his disposal, man embarks on land-filling oceans, lagoons, estuaries and destroying the natural sand dunes. Smart or recipes for disaster?
What about the many acts of man’s inhumanity to man, triggered by his assumed smartness.
For no other reason than the notion that it is a smart move, a group of people embarked on several atrocious acts; murder, property destruction and genocide among others against another group. Their singular goal? Ensure that this other group doesn’t get to be as powerful as they are or out of jealousy that they are developing at a fast pace. Smartness embedded in wickedness and devoid of an iota of wisdom!
Now, adamantine stands the Law; “Whatsoever a Man soweth, that he Shall Reap.” An offshoot of it is the wise counsel; “Do onto others as you want them do onto you.”
Indeed, whenever man disregard this law in his thoughts, words and deeds it is an expression of selfishness, wickedness, lack of wisdom and lack of love. This cannot but negatively impact the community and hunt man in the near future, if not now.
The intellect, no doubt was given to us by the Almighty Creator and its appropriate usage WILLED by Him. But is it His Will that the same intellect be used to cause disharmony or evade responsibilities under the guise of smartness? Clearly and emphatically No. Not from the Almighty Who gave us the Ten Commandments through Which, harmonious co-existence runs.
The Lord wishes indeed that we make use of His gift of intellect but not with disregard to humane feelings. What man calls humane feeling issuing out of the inner man is meant to lead the intellect in his decisions. Any decision issuing out of an “I don’t care” attitude is solely the work of the intellect. It cannot but harm someone and form an express channel to disharmony, disruption and suffering.
Thus, through the Grace of the Almighty, we now know that in the scheme of things, the intellect which is associated with the frontal brain is given to man on earth to steer him through the challenges of this part of creation. But it was meant to take directives from the inner man through the other half of the brain; the back brain, which indeed connects the inner man with his spiritual home.
Alas! the back brain is now stunted in man of today due to lack of usage, from generation on to generation and it’s now called the small brain or the dream brain. The intellect has now become the master rather than remaining a tool. Thus today, for majority of man, the intellect is no longer capable of taking directives from its spiritual home. This indeed is the Fall of Man.
Now cut off guidance, the intellect is having a free reign; some of us are continuously calling on it to direct its activities on to ignoble acts such as cheating, stealing, oppression, etc. When this results in an apparent earthly success, man calls it smart. But indeed, this is nothing but a distortion of the activities Willed by the Creator for the intellect. It’s lacking in wisdom.
Wisdom is the hallmark attribute of a mature man or one striving for maturity. Wisdom comes from within. It is a function of the inner man. Only the man who strives to tap from the Source of All Power, the Almighty Creator can have true wisdom. He cannot but be one with harmony, peace and progress.
Smartness without wisdom breeds greed, selfishness, oppression, wickedness etc. It’s a function of the intellect alone.
The man who lives in a world of smartness devoid of wisdom is alien to harmony, peace and progress.
©Leo
