To Educate or Not

To educate or not to educate oneself is a question I have been thinking a lot about lately. (namely Middle-East Conflict) As a rational human being, should we care and learn about what is going on in the rest of the world?

Obviously one argument against knowing is that, there is nothing we can do about it. Which is in itself, narrow-minded. There is something we can do, it is something so difficult and so challenging even if we did do it, there is a good chance it won't make a difference. Another argument is that "I pay taxes, and our leaders are responsible."

Me personally, I need to know. I need to know why they are fighting, what they are fighting for, and what they need to stop fighting. Also, I know I'm not going to do anything, I'm not going to fly there and help rebuild, I'm not going to go preach a non violence speech. I believe all I can do is try to understand, so that in the future, choices I make, decisions that make up my life, will be better. Or at least better than not knowing. It goes back to the idea that "knowledge is power." And if knowledge is power, we are stronger with an education. So I say weigh the time it would take to educate yourself against the time you could be doing something else, and decide for yourself.