Wise Up In The Race For Knowledge We Are Forsaking Wisdom, Says Jacob Needleman

Here’s one thing you probably won’t get on the information highway:

Any wiser. Bombarded by sound-bites, satellite feeds and newsprint, Americans are afloat in information. But few know what’s important, how to deal with it or what it means.

Saturday, the public is invited to join a leading cultural philosopher in the search for wisdom in everyday life.

Jacob Needleman will be the keynote speaker at a daylong workshop at Gonzaga University. The San Francisco author, professor and philosopher’s conferences on wisdom have drawn hundreds of people searching for meaning.

The modern economy implies that possessions make people happy. They don’t, Needleman said.

“We know we have all kinds of material things but we have very little sense of what the meaning of our life is. That’s the great need. We’re starved for meaning.”

From his office at San Francisco State University, Needleman said that wisdom is different from information and knowledge.

“Although we use information to try and solve most of our problems, we realize we need wisdom for the deeper human questions, to get to the ultimate truths,” he said.

In the media age, information, delivered in what writer Neil Postman calls “peek-a-boo style” causes events to pop up and then vanish, without any coherence and sense. People are confused and unable to discriminate between what’s truly important. People distrust their own instincts because they fear they don’t know enough and because they don’t know everything.

“The rapid growth of information has not made us more powerful, but more obscure,” said Dr. John Caputo, head of communication arts at GU. “We feel diminished, unable to impact what’s going on. There’s a real sense of helplessness.”

The emergence of science and technology has also replaced many of the old teachings about who humans are and what we ought to be, Needleman said.

To help people begin finding wisdom, Needleman will discuss the wisdom that is central to Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and virtually all religions traditions.

He will also discuss the relationship between wisdom and love and how to bring wisdom into our lives by recognizing wise people around us.

The wise are not at universities and heading corporations, he says, or even well educated. But they have lived, and paid a price for their wisdom.

“The deepest wisdom comes through personal sacrifices and suffering. Information you can get from turning on a computer, knowledge from taking a course, but wisdom only comes through living.”

Needleman, 60, was educated at Harvard, Yale and the University of Freiberg, Germany. He is the author of seven books including “Lost Christianity,” “The Way of the Physician” and “The New Religions.” His 1991 book, “Money and the Meaning of Life” led to a number of appearances including on Bill Moyer’s public television series “A World of Ideas.”

The April 8 workshop, sponsored by the Francis-Ignatian Center, the Jesuit Community, St. Michael’s Institute and Gonzaga departments of Communication Arts, Education and Religious Studies is being billed as a “dialogue.” It not only gives people a chance to hear leading thinkers, but the approach gives participants ample opportunity to react and speak during the day.

“We don’t want a group of professionals telling people what they ought to think,” said Caputo. “It’s got to be an organic view to allow people to speak their passion and validate their experiences.”

Organizers are hoping people find such a discussion empowering and practical. Needleman is hoping to urge people to begin to seek the wise and listen to them in order to make sense of the world and one another. He believes wisdom is what modern children need most of all.

“Children need this desperately. They need to have some place to ask the questions of the heart - which is what these questions are all about.”

The wisdom conference will be Saturday at 8:30 a.m. at Jepson Auditorium at Gonzaga University. Registration is $15, which includes a box lunch. Walk up registration will not include lunch. Scholarships are available for those unable to pay. For more information, call 328-4220, ext. 3262.