“Specialization
is for insects,” said Robert Anson Heinlein. A human being should be able to
handle his/her children, prepare food, manage the society, work with a
smartphone, and so on. Add as many things as you want to that list like fight
occasional depression, stay clear of maniacs and fanatics and a whole lot of
people, weed your garden, or whatever.
When I was a
student, a teacher of mine defined specialisation as studying more and more
about less and less until you know everything about nothing. The teacher was a
Ph.D. himself. Later on, as a post-graduate, when I wished to do Ph.D. I
thought of the giggle of Salman Rushdie’s Satan in his Satanic Verses. No guide would accept a thesis about a hair in
Satan’s tail, my friend dissuaded me. That friend had chosen to specialise on
the role of Fate’s star in Thomas Hardy’s moral cosmos. He went on to become a
Doctor of Philosophy who had specialised on the impact of Fate on Tess of the d’Urbervilles’
hymen. I went on to struggle with the hair on Satan’s tail and remained a Jack
of many trades like blogging when I was not engaged in a trapeze dance between despairing
and hoping.
I don’t know
how happy Tess’s hymen kept my friend in his subsequent years. I know that
Satan’s tail entertained me thoroughly for most part of my life. Anyway the
personal experiences of two individuals can’t be a proof for universal truths,
notwithstanding the momentous significance of specialisation in today’s world.
In the olden
days, if I went to an Ayurvedic doc in my village with a complaint of chronic
headache he would put me a on a course of holistic treatment with severe
restrictions on my diet. At the end of the treatment not only would my headache
vanish but also my whole body would be rejuvenated. Such a treatment would take
months if not years.
Today I go to
a multi-speciality hospital with my complaint. I would be put through half a
dozen tests and scans before I would be directed to meet an equal number of
specialists ranging from neurologist to urologist and reflexologist to trichologist.
Finally my headache will vanish in a few days. That’s the miracle of
specialisation. Never mind that the medicines used in the meanwhile would gift me
such side effects that I will never be able to live without the assistance of a
lot more specialists hereafter. The specialists are available, so why worry?
Very much logical writing, i totally agree with your views.
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