Useless learning?

 Pagaiyakatthup pedikai olvaal avaiyagatthu anjumavan katra nool - Thirukkural

The wisdom of he who fears his audience is as useful as the shining sword in the hands of a coward in battle - Loose translation

Tiru makes me happy about my ignorance. I mean, first you need to learn, understand and be able to speak the proper words; then you also need to have the courage to face an audience and speak without stuttering and fearing ridicule. Yuck! Far easier to be ignorant! Being learned is a perilous exercise if you have to adhere to all the dos and donts prescribed by our Tiru.

I mean, assume that you are sitting in one of those meetings that executives feel important about. You know, the 'I am in an important meeting' sort of ones which make everyone around you feel that your company would go down in rack and ruin if you do not contribute your pearls of wisdom right then and there. The reality is that you are there to take notes for your boss who is too busy sniping at his competitors to do it for himself. What do you do there if you know that there is something wrong in the proposal?

It's all too easy for Tiru to say that, now that you have the shining sword in your hand and you are in the battlefield, you should fearlessly sally forth and annihilate the enemy. Or, in more mundane terms, what is the use of your knowledge of what is wrong in the proposal if you will not say it in the meeting because you fear the consequences of rubbing powerful people wrong? (Looks, though, like this idea of using blood-and-thunder military metaphors for dusty paperwork is not merely a recent fetish by management gurus. Even Tiru does that...YAY! We had THIS from way back in history!)

What is wrong? EVERYTHING! Firstly, do you guys realize that ANY proposal is invariably someone's brainchild and that person is probably more protective of it than a mother with her child? Also, YOU are there, like little children of yore, to be seen and to hear but not be heard, and for YOU to oppose the proposal is like the water-jug pouring...errr...water over the proposal. In other words, if proposals are opposed, they need to be opposed by someone superior to the proposer or else the consequences for the one who opposes are unlikely to be enjoyable. And, lastly, what if YOU are wrong? It is far easier to allow the proposal to go through, let it go smash, and THEN say, "I knew this would happen back then but no-one would listen!" (No-one listened because you never spoke, yes, but who can prove it?)

Or, take a situation where something is happening in Society which you know is terrible. Tiru would want you to sally forth telling the world the truth. Regardless of consequences! Choosing the words that make your message palatable, yes, but there are some truths where no amount of sugarcoating can conceal the bitterness. Come now, what use is it to me to do that?

Even in Social media. I mean, you may have a different opinion from even those who are staunch believers in freedom of expression; those with whom you agreed on most things but not on this. Tiru would want you to express chapter and verse of your opposition. What does he expect? That, being supporters of FoE and all, they would laud my courage or listen to my points? Nonsense! Overnight, I'd be 'Canceled', labeled the worst names they can think of, and treated as an outcast. Far safer to remain silent in such a case than to wave my shining sword in defiance on that battlefield.

But, then, I suppose the problem is not with Tiru, it is with the times he lived in. More to the point, it is the strange meaning that they seem to have attributed to that word 'useful' in his times.

When THEY said 'useful', they seem to assume that 'useful' only means 'useful to society'. Things have progressed a long way since then.

NOW, we know that 'useful' only means 'What is in it for me"!