Here is the first blog post:
Sir Francis Bacon, famous scientist and philosopher, once purported that knowledge is power ("scientia potentia est"). This phrase can easily be interpreted to mean that knowledge empowers the individual to excel in society and achieve personal success. This definition can, and has, been used to stress the importance of free and equal access to education. This definition, embodies the hopes and aspirations of Sir Francis Bacon's England, a world in which scientific development and discovery was gaining a more prominent place in western society than ever before. Science was changing people's world views and making the world a smaller place; knowledge was empowering the individual mind and empowering countries to new heights.
The reality, however, was that knowledge in the right hands was power over others. The reality of Sir Francis Bacon's England was that knowledge was given to the few elite. Knowledge was used to gain individual fortune, and knowledge was used to colonize countries whose navigational and weapons advancements were less developed than others. This mantra of 'knowledge as power' was used to subjugate women and the poor in England and indigenous people around the world. The power of knowledge was used to create a trans-Atlantic slave trade that would lay the foundation to half a millennium of violent white supremacy across the globe.
The control of knowledge by an elite few is still a source of power in today's world. The dream of free and equal access to education is still merely a dream. In much of the world, primary education is not a right, and in most of the world, higher education is reserved for those who have the means to pay for it. Even those who can afford that education are at the whim of the system that controls what knowledge is taught. From the textbook companies that have deals with universities to the monopolized media companies that control the news we see everyday, knowledge is controlled by the elite and is used to keep the status quo.
But I am not a pessimist. I whole-heartedly believe that the world is changing. Knowledge is becoming more and more public; it is shared freely and openly like never before. Take for example, Encyclopaedia Britannica: since 1771 it has been recognized as the ultimate source of knowledge in the English speaking world. This elitist collection of books was "written by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert contributors" (Wikipedia). In a world of 1.8 billion English speakers, how can the knowledge of 4000 be deemed more important than that of the other 99.9998%?
The answer to that question can be found in the way that the Internet is being used to share the vastness of human knowledge and experience. For example, mass media is controlled primarily by four massive corporations: Disney, News Corporation, Viacom, and Time Warner. These companies are funded by politically minded individuals who are not afraid to endorse their own biases. We the public have long been at the mercy of the news that these companies sell us. There are however, more alternatives becoming available. NowPublic is an on-line news source that is completely democratic. Anyone can publish a story, and as stories are read and freelance journalists are subscribed to they become featured on the NowPublic front page.
Another medium also being used to share knowledge is blogging. Although blogs are closer in nature to a newspaper editorial, they are no less credible than what is being published in newspapers. The three most read blogs on the web have over 37 million new visitors every month. Traditional newspaper cannot boast even a fraction of this many readers. This is why many newspapers now include blogs on their websites in an attempt to compete with the fact that the masses, with the use of the Internet, now decide what knowledge will be privileged. The public now has the choice to examine all available information and gather knowledge for themselves, freely sharing it with others.
The way that knowledge is shared and controlled is changing in ways that would have been unimaginable to previous generations. Open-source education is revolutionizing access to not only general knowledge, but specialized knowledge as well. Although Sir Francis Bacon was part of a very privileged and prejudiced system, I believe that his statement, 'knowledge is power', was uttered in a spirit of hope and optimism. I believe that those hopes are becoming more of a reality every day-- and in the words of Public Enemy, I say, 'Power to the People!'
