Apathy's Antidote.

I found a quote that had been lodged into the byline of a October 2003 Deccan Herald article by Elizabeth Cherian that spoke on the role of Mumbai, India's schools toward graduating great students like Fareed Zacharia, Salman Rushdie and Kumarmangalam Birla who have become great, globally-minded intellectuals. The quote reads:

“When men are pure, laws are useless;
when men are corrupt, laws are broken.”
-Disraeli

I remembered reading this quote during a history course I'd taken a few years ago at "lowly" Portland State University. This memory brought up a thought that was just as poignant. My professors in history and English imprinted upon me that what matters most is that a student wants to seek an education. Where the student receives it matters less and less in current times. This is mostly because of the many advantages that have come from using advancing technology and the many, widely available resources for gaining and researching information. This capability, to educate oneself, is constantly overlooked by those who believe it's beyond their potential to strive. Reading this quote led me to recognize not just the words within the quote itself, but the context in which Disraeli spoke.

Without education, a person is limited only by their apathy. Without education, the base instincts for survival rule man or woman. With the embracing of "rule by instinctual behavior" comes disorder, corruption and hysteria. These are not new ideas or thoughts and they are not meant to be. Disraeli's words struck me now, having finished my rudimentary education, that where lawlessness, immorality and turmoil are the rule -- as we are made well aware of in recent times -- learning why such ignorance reigns, offering information and presenting the venues for open discourse, are the likely methods for presenting resolutions toward order and understanding.

The first move: reading. Next: thinking. Afterward: questioning. Following this: discussing. Then: answering. Finally: learning.

Wash.
Rinse.
Repeat.

The cost of this is usually the same thing in all countries, all palces, and in all monetary units: Time.