Can something be simultaneously true and false? Sometimes it can depend on perspective

I was doing my daily German lesson on an app on my phone. Even though I don’t expect to ever live there again, I want to keep my language skills somewhat current. You never know when we might visit friends, and it took a lot of effort to acquire the little German I do have. It would be a shame to lose it.

Sometimes in the attempt to teach certain concepts the sentences can be rather amusing. I’m not sure my owl is stronger than my dog. I can’t be sure because I own neither.

Last week, translating one particular sentence from German to English made me pause. comparison sentence, though not one I have ever heard before. “Swimming is more dangerous than reading.”

That’s a no-brainer, right? Drowning is a much bigger problem than a paper cut. Nobody dies from a paper cut. But then I got to thinking.

Reading is almost as subversive an activity as thinking. Indeed, they are linked. People who read widely are less likely to be taken in by what purports to be truth, especially online truth.

For example, if you read and learn about the structure of the American electoral system you may be appalled – but you can’t possibly believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen. (That they manage to make the system work at all is a minor miracle. America’s founders forgot the maxim “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” In rejecting teh English Westminster system and creating their own form of government they wound up with a creature that has grown weaker over time. But I digress.)

Reading can present a danger to the status quo. There is a reason that the fallback position of much of society today when their ideas are challenged is to try to silence the challenger. Reading gives people ideas, and the powers that be hate ideas, especially those that critique their beliefs. When someone on the left (or on the right) says a matter is settled, you can be sure it isn’t.

And they don’t want to hear about what you have been reading. Which is why The Bible, a love letter from God to humanity, is referred to as hate literature by some people. By denigrating the literature and stigmatizing those who believe it they hope to shut down discussion. Better to pretend than to be honest.

People who read come up with new ideas, sometimes bad, sometimes good. People who read understand that tearing down the system is easy – and that you shouldn’t tear down old walls until you know what you want to build in their place.

Swimming can be dangerous for those who have gone into the water. Reading is dangerous for far more than just the reader. Reading can change society, both positively and negatively, if people are open to what they are reading.

Is “swimming is more dangerous than reading?” Only in German lessons.