I Read Books Instead of Watching the News, Lest I Grow Stupid

I have been very quiet lately, and my public account no longer updates daily as it used to. People keep worrying and messaging me. I want to tell everyone here: I am fine, and in no trouble at all.

I simply do not like watching the news, nor do I want to join in any more debates about hot-button issues. Let everything take its course; what is meant to come will come, and what is not will not. The wheels of history roll on, and no one can stop them.

Watch too much news and you grow stupid, because some fabricators of fake news are treating us as fools. Unfortunately, many people have no habit of reading serious books, and even fewer are willing to read weighty tomes. Most prefer fast-food reading, so they are fated to be deceived by all kinds of fake news.

These days I spend most of my time reading and studying, working my way through some thick books. I watch no news, do not look at Moments, post nothing on Moments, and write nothing on my public account.

I live well; I ask for little, and what I have is enough. Though it is a year of disaster, I live freely and with ease. Outside of work, I spend most of my time reading monographs I enjoy, and occasionally go for a walk with my family.

The greatest benefit of reading is that it inspires deep thinking, whereas reading fast-food news and the sentimental words in Moments only turns people into thoughtless yet self-righteous idiots.

Thinking is a rare ability; it takes a great deal of reading and study to think in any true sense. Many mistake their own shallow prejudgments for thinking, which is truly the most absurd thing in the world. Personally, I dislike talking to such people; life is short, and wasting precious life on nonsense is a sin.

For example, recently, for certain special reasons, some people who know virtually nothing about medicine have come straight to me to hold forth on their understanding of disease, convinced they know more than I do. That makes me want to end the conversation. I have studied medicine for twenty years and have a fair grasp of issues in this field; remarks that violate basic medical commonality deeply disgust me.

These are fellows whipped up by fast-food reading into a frenzy of both fanaticism and foolishness-beyond words. May time give them the right answer.

The world, though it rises and falls, is still moving in a generally forward direction. As people's knowledge and reading grow, the ignorant and bigoted will dwindle; I believe that in the days ahead, rational people will become more numerous. As for the present, let each of us simply be well.