Gandalf, Yoda and Admiral Adama are a few of my favorite supporting characters of the sci-fi and fantasy genre. They each possess strength, character and a secret weapon that in and of themselves, could carry the story unaided and in truth, they do in the opening chapters, shading the hero from the harsh sun and giving them time to take root and mature. But they can’t shield the young sapling forever, they are old after all, and so our learned guides must pass the mantle of leadership to our heroes and it amounts to giving them the ability to operate independently in the world. In addition to teaching them to harness their latent superpower, they give them something of innumerable value – wisdom.

The stories go like this. A threat looms and time is running out. A powerful sage appears but lacks the vitality and that special ‘something’ required to vanquish the enemy, and so, they look to someone who possesses both – our hero. But our hero is young, brash and naïve. Frodo, Luke Skywalker and Starbuck are cast from this very mold, and though they are intelligent and observant too, they just haven’t acquired enough life experience to understand its many nuances, rules of thumbs and dichotomies, and only in time can they apply life’s lessons intelligently. 

The big question is – why does this theme end up in so many stories? Clearly, we never tire of it, and since we tire of things that are common, maybe wisdom is uncommon? Like the Big Foot, wisdom is an elusive creature, and like a metaphorical version of the Patterson-Gimlin film, our stories reveal and confirm its existence, and we watch, riveted to the screen, as it strides confidently out of the forest, buoyant with the hope that we’ll find it too one day.

Think on it. How many people do you know who are truly wise? Intelligent people are many, but intelligence and wisdom are not the same thing. Intelligence allows one to make sense of data and by doing so, brings about knowledge. Wisdom allows us to take the knowledge and apply it to bring about maximum benefit and the least amount of harm. And this is where it gets tricky. Science can do this in many cases. A blind, double cohort study will tell us that the Polio vaccination will improve survival rates dramatically, and with this knowledge in mind, it’s a no-brainer to go get your shot.  However, science falls short in the application of ethics and morality since these sit outside the bounds of the material world and sit squarely within the realm of human experience.

And this is the problem. Our techno-information-centric society idolizes Musk over Plato, and without the tempering hand of wisdom our political leadership waivers between expediency and popularity, sound bites over discourse and spin over truth. Our faith in the technological leaps knows no bounds and our access to information and the rate we can consume it is unparalleled in history, but our ability to use it to inform our ways of living is lacking.
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And so, that’s why we need a few Gandolf’s, Yoda’s and Adama’s, or better yet, many of them. Let’s start with you and me.

Cheers!

BG