Knowledge Is Power
I have long been fascinated with how tenaciously authorities have worked throughout history to deny books, and even the ability to read, to particular segments of their populace. Or, they have chosen to make the written word so arcane that only the preferred could have access.
In ancient Egypt, only specially trained scribes and priests could create and read hieroglyphics. As dynasties progressed, fewer and fewer were trained to read the increasingly complicated symbols, thus shrinking the circle of those who would construct Egypt’s lasting histories.
The early Catholic Church announced the words of the Gospel to their illiterate parishioners, thus controlling the historical language of the Bible, so that only they were allowed to speak the Word of God.
In the United States, it was a crime to teach a slave to read. In many countries, the same is true for educating girls in any way.
The Nazis burned thousands of books to make certain that no one could see that Jewish writers thought and cared about many positive things, or questioned the status quo, or that they wrote literature, like regular valuable humans. The only books allowed were those that carried on the lies the Nazis had created.
Currently, many schools and local libraries maintain a list of banned books to keep their students “safe” from any knowledge of families with two moms, or any kind of diversity, or heroism, grace or intelligence in other races. Our national joke of a government has literally removed references to women and people of color who have taken leadership or excelled in academia. God forbid we should learn that the rotting pile of garbage in the oval office and those of his gender and race are not actually superior writers, military heroes, or thinkers.
In the early days of a unified Iceland, when they established the Althingi, the oldest, continuously meeting Parliament in the world, new laws would be read out loud to the people, as most could not read. The Parliament named the reader “The Speaker”, and so our congressional leaders are called, to this day.
In law school we were taught the arcane language of the law so that we could control the use of it. Not only Latin phrases like res ipsa loquitur (the thing speaks for itself) but also purposefully convoluted concepts like The Rule Against Perpetuities, Certiorari, Habeas Corpus. Full employment for lawyers.
Why such effort? Look no further than the easy truth. If I allow you to read, you may be exposed to, or choose, dangerous new ideas, that is, ideas contrary to mine. Or you may dream of a world outside your own and even reach for it, ceasing to serve me. I certainly can’t have that.
Best sign of a tyrannical government: ban books, bar the ability to gain knowledge, teach only the chosen to read. Control the stories, the words and the dreams… destroy the push for change. It falls to us to put a stop to this here in our counties, states, and country, in any way we can. Legamus omnia!
The Overture
We sit expectantly in our seats, waiting for the musical to begin. The first thing we usually hear is the Overture, a compendium of the music to come, a doorway into the rhythms, tone, and promises of the show to come. I suddenly thought, listening to the overstuffed orange chicken in the white house promise $5000 to every American if his party holds on to a majority after the midterms, it’s the Overture! If you think about it, most campaign promises are just that. A hint of the music that will follow, once you have bought the right ticket. Lower taxes. Lower food and gas prices. More medicare coverage. And many will permit themselves to be fooled, because, though other candidates promise to work toward a goal, many Americans believe this guy will actually deliver. We don’t quite hear it yet, but we like the sound of it.
Honestly, some of us do try and bring forth the music we promised in the overture, but in the case of this president, not a chance. This is simply another of his phantasmagorical promises, thrown out from a mouth that hits the pedal before his brain is engaged. So, don’t expect to hear the songs later. They haven’t been written and, trust me, they won’t be.
