Know

“Uncle, what is the first thing a human can do?”. “Know how to cry!”, yesterday afternoon I was startled to answer the tricky question of a 5-year-old neighbor. “So who teaches the baby to cry?”. This time I really broke out in a sweat. Yes, who teaches it? Who knows how to teach it? It seems that according to traditional experience as well as medical recommendations, the safety indicator of a normal human being when born is knowing how to cry. A study even confirmed that in order to be able to cry, the baby had to spend a lot of time “practicing” this miraculous thing since being in the mother’s womb. This is the first and most important behavior of a newborn baby – knowing how to cry. But why can’t a baby know how to cry right from birth, perhaps I would like to ask the readers to answer for me.

The cry of birth is the first announcement solemnly broadcast by the subject's voice to boldly announce to humanity that a new creature has just successfully entered this beautiful world. A cry does not come with pain, after that cry is of course the burst of happiness of the parent. On the contrary, a child born without knowing how to cry is almost certainly an abnormal child, if there is no timely intervention it can lead to danger. A child born knowing how to cry, that is natural, no one teaches. The Creator has generously and elaborately implanted in humans at birth the most basic natural abilities to accept and conquer life. Vietnamese people have a very good and unique custom which is "Worshiping the Midwives" when the baby is even months old. According to the concept, every child born has the protection of 12 Midwives in heaven. These are goddesses who are always by the child’s side to shelter, to protect and to teach the child to “know” everything. Of course, “Mụ” is a product of belief, science may not acknowledge it, but society has no reason to deny it. Worshiping “Mụ” is ultimately a thank you to the creator for “teaching” the child so many things.

After releasing the first cries into the world, the next difficult journey of a child is to learn to breastfeed! Not easy, those are the first “tasks” of a living being on the journey of “integrating without dissolving” into the world. One month then two months, one year then two years, the child continues to explore and grow. Learning to laugh, to roll over, to crawl, to talk, to walk. When they grow up a little more, they learn to read, to write, to blow soap bubbles… until they learn to beautify, to fear, to love, to hate, to give, to forgive, to give up…

There are things that people know by themselves, and that ability is often linked to a system of unconditional biological reflexes. In addition to the gifts received from God, to know things in this world, people must learn, must study, must research. To know, people must have the need and ability to absorb. Perception is a process of acquiring the outside world through different gateways and communication methods. "Traveling a day's journey, learning a basketful of knowledge" (proverb). That's it, to be "wise" people must "learn", to learn, people must "travel". Intelligence, or in other words, the ability to recognize and handle life, is not for lazy people. Knowing is a verb that not only reflects the amount of information recognized, but it also contains the ability to analyze, behavioral culture, trends and ways to deal with each piece of information. There are people who know everything but never succeed because they lack... knowledge! There are rich, scheming, and corrupt people who are not respected by society because they do not know shame. There are businesses that prosper for a while and then die young because they do not know how to "live"! There are even unjust cases because the victims do not know how to argue! Success depends largely on the ability to perceive, but it must be "knowing the enemy and knowing yourself".

In modern society, whoever has the information has the advantage, but the final winner is always the one who has tasted defeat. In some cases, knowledge also reflects the individual's level of knowledge and professional ability. For example, a teacher cannot be illiterate, a surgeon cannot be illiterate, a soldier cannot be illiterate on the battlefield, a gun cannot be used on the battlefield, and of course, a director of the high-tech crime prevention department cannot be illiterate! Now, the so-called ability is sometimes distorted by the harsh reality of life. It is ridiculous that a student going to school now has to know how to avoid a punch and be proficient in slapping a friend, even knowing how to lick a chair, a motorcyclist on the street is required to know how to swim, and an official going to work not only knows the job but also knows how to ignore it!

The ancients have a saying:

“It's easier to draw a tiger's skin than its bones.”

"Know a person's face, but not his heart"

That means drawing a tiger can only draw the skin but it is very difficult to draw bones, looking at a person can only see the face but not the heart. What we know and what we want to know are an unbalanced quantity. Therefore, conquering information is a battle for survival on all fronts. However, in life, there are people who seem to know nothing but know very well. There are also people who seem to know very well but in fact know nothing. And the disaster of society is "The wise do not speak, the talkative do not know" - those who know do not speak and those who speak do not know! Remember the "triangle spelling" incident not long ago, people joined in shouting, cursing blindly but unfortunately they themselves did not know what they were cursing! Those who have not yet been freed from "cursing blindness" only know how to... tease!

On November 21, 2018, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc made a statement that made headlines. As the host of the "Conference on innovation and improving the operational efficiency of state-owned enterprises, focusing on corporations and general companies", the Prime Minister frankly stated: "I want to say that there is a man who has not only 1 backyard but 2-3 backyards, even 12-13, 13-14 backyards. There are many backyards trading raw materials. I affirm that the Prime Minister does not know." The people breathed a sigh of relief, the Prime Minister knew, and if the Prime Minister knew, he would have to run to heaven. So it is clear that "backyard" - a term full of the bedroom meaning of the "official economy" region was "overturned" by the head of the government in the middle of the conference. Yes, the Prime Minister knows, and surely the Prime Minister is also capable of knowing how to "replan" the "backyards" to the approved design.

Writing this far, I suddenly thought of a court session where lawyers and prosecutors were arguing with each other whether the company that violated the law was a “professional company” or a “front company”. While the confusion over academic concepts has not yet been resolved, the people already know who is “fronting” for whom in this case. Don’t think that people don’t know how to use computers, don’t joke, the people know everything! Don’t be foolish enough to deceive the people, or one day the people will punish you to show your face.