A renaissance man
Our era is an era of specialization or is alternately an era of dabbling.
It is not an era of being deeply read on multiple topics.
A neat thing about being deeply read on multiple topics is that when you combine them, you have a niche in which you are suddenly so much more proficient than others.
Being somewhat proficient in one topic, being somewhat proficient in another topic, and being quite proficient in at least one other topic can make you world class when the three are combined.
That's kind of a neat life hack that many reading this can likely take to heart, no matter how "not world class" you previously found yourself to be.
The idea of the renaissance man is to be well-rounded.
This is almost the opposite of the Twitter man.
The Twitter man has shallow roots in many topics.
Sometimes the Twitter man may even have worse than shallow roots. He may be filled with lots of misinformation.
And you know what: though I’m not too active on Twitter, lots of headlines cross my path and cross my desk.
That has the same impact as Twitter.
Because I seek to be at least generally aware of current events, I have very strong influences in my life that encourage me to be Twitter man.
And, at the same time, I realize that does not have to be the fate I choose for myself.
It does not matter how face paced the world is, I get to decide the pace at which it will enter my home and I get to decide the pace at which it will enter my mind.
When I sit down with a book, I know I am combatting that influence in my life.
I am combatting that pace. I am combatting the tendency to be the Twitter man.
I am telling myself: it’s time to put Twitter on hold and think more deeply.
Even better that just reading a book, to my surprise, have been these monthly readings I’m doing in which I make time to not only read a book slowly and deeply, but also to discuss. I knew this would be good for me, but I wasn't able to predict how good.
For example, after I finish a reading for the day, and I think I have it all figured out, and I think I see all the ways it applies in the world, perhaps even having written a little about that day's reading, well, then the guy from Canada shares a perspective that says maybe I got it all wrong, the gal from Texas says be sure you have a look at this part clearly, and the folks from New Hampshire, Montana, Tennessee, another country, California, and the Midwest point out things that cause me to demand a closer look.
The 14-year-old homeschooler shares a little brilliance.
Then the 83-year-old who hasn't said anything in two weeks chimes in.
And this is all before I’ve even shared an opinion about that part of the book.
You can maybe imagine how much more depth and breadth that brings to the reading.
And I didn't even have to open up my mouth to have that exposure.
I just had to show up being willing to listen.
I can say I'm really getting a lot out of that.
And if you have the same appreciation for understanding a topic with some depth, you too may find this process to provide a lot to you.
The past few months we have dug into the ethics around living naturally rather than the trans-humanist dream for society, authenticity in a phony world, the nature of the genders, and American history for activists (the current topic this June).
Our online discussions have enriched my understanding of these topics, and (something I really like) the discussion is not restrictively academic -- with everyone stealing ideas off of other published academics in order to have permission to speak them.
Our discussion is free flowing and impressive.
And you can be a big contributor to the discussion, but you don't have to be either. You can be like me -- really enjoying sitting back and listening.
While Twitter, Gab, YouTube and Rumble bring many benefits — benefits I am grateful for — this is, in some ways, the opposite of those. The interaction and exchange of these readings and discussions gives you a vibrant opportunity to dig deeper.
This is the type of structure that enlivens the renaissance man and makes his existence possible in this era.
It may be too late for you to join the American History for Activists reading and discussion, but in the month of July we will read “The Real Anthony Fauci" by Robert Kennedy.
You can join that conversation here -- https://realstevo.com/fauci
Allan Stevo