“Educate Yourself”
By Thomas Shuck
Are We Entering A New Dark Age?
“Google that shit.” “Hey Siri, how…” “Alexa, when did ….”
“Educate yourself.”
Any of us who have engaged in a spirited online debate (usually on a social media platform) have heard those words. Simply put: Person A makes a claim. Person B questions said claim. Person A responds with, “educate yourself.” Normally that’s the end of the exchange without consensus. Perhaps I should educate myself, but how?
Recently during a discussion at work, a colleague inquired if such an organization like the Illuminati exists. Another colleague quickly retorted that “we all have phones with cameras, wouldn’t that make it impossible for such an organization to remain in the shadows?”
I didn’t have a quick answer to the question. I did make a quick historical reference to the fact that secret organizations, whether it be the freemasons or the Templars, exist throughout history and if historical precedence were any indicator, they likely still exist today. But that isn’t what further examination of that original question addressed. The general feeling when addressing the ongoing thirst is that our continuous quest has been hampered, hamstrung, and sabotaged. In a sense, the quest for knowledge feels that, despite having so much technology and resources at our fingertips, we are entering a new Dark Age of human thought. (For those of you unfamiliar, the “Dark Ages” was a term given by Petrarch describing the period of economic, social & cultural decline from the fall of the Roman Empire until the Renaissance.)
Confronting this broader issue of education and knowledge requires a much more substantive effort than simply bookmarking Wikipedia on my mobile phone.
Fast forward to that evening at the dinner table, I turned to my wife and remarked, “You know, I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I do think more so NOW than EVER BEFORE, organizations like Illuminati can remain in the shadows.” My kids, 4 years old and 10 months old, didn’t think much of it. Even my wife had a bit of a perplexed look about her. Just as technology has advanced to the point where we nearly all have camera phones that can call anybody and look up anything, we’ve never been more chained to these devices. “We are in a new form of Dark Ages, but not due to a failure in literacy or reason, but due to technology.” I ended the evening declaring that once our youngest was several years older, we would be getting her a complete set of hardcover Encyclopedia Britannica (if they are still available).
That seems odd, doesn’t it? Why peruse old dusty volumes in search of knowledge that is available with the swipe of a tablet or mobile device? Consistency would probably be the word that best comes to mind. But let’s examine this a bit further. In the past few years, terms like “woman,” “vaccine,” and “recession” have all been redefined to meet currently evolving social needs. Even the term “nazis” seems to have taken on a new and almost universal meaning. When we search the web for information seeking answers to subject matter, sometimes finding “the answer” can be an exhaustive affair. We exist in a reality of shifting definitions, disinformation, misinformation, fake news, algorithms, gaslighting, and plain old lies.
“When is the founding of the United States” is not even a clear answer anymore. To many, that answer would be July 4, 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed. To others, it was August of 1619 when 20 African slaves were brought to present-day Virginia. But consistency is hardly the only reason to maintain a physical, educational resource at your fingertips.
Access. A second and equally critical aspect of education remains access to information. What good is a library if there is no access to it? That reality was made grossly apparent during the Covid-19 pandemic when libraries across the country were closed. For months, it was impossible to borrow books or access other resources that had previously been open to the public. This wasn’t the only time a library was closed. The famous Library of Alexandria in Egypt was, during its height, considered the world center of thought. Founded in the third century BCE, scholars from across the known world journeyed to the heart of the Ptoleamic Empire to seek out the greatest center of knowledge in the known world. Whether it was burned by Julius Cesar or (more likely) simply diminished into obscurity, the library was destroyed during the Palmyrene invasion of the 270s AD. A center for thought and consciousness was forever lost.
Physical access to a resource might not be hampered solely due to human activity — sometimes, nature can take its toll on the written word. My local library this past summer was forced to throw away thousands of books due to humidity and mold issues. Hurricanes, wildfires, and floods… can all destroy libraries just as easily as they may any factory or household. So knowledge itself can have access problems too.
Third, existence. What happens when our mobile devices are shut down and access to the internet is restricted? This is a routine occurrence in oppressive countries like China, Cuba, and Myanmar. Individuals can turn on their devices, but should their social credit scores disqualify them from accessing online resources, those devices are rendered no better than paperweights. Whether a social credit score threshold isn’t met or an internet service bill isn’t paid, those online resources can disappear in the blink of an eye. In fact, just as it took centuries for the Library at Alexandria to descend and eventually close, I would argue that online resources can be made inaccessible much faster. Simply look at how quickly many people are de-platformed. Online resources are no different. A physical encyclopedia that is curated in a home library stands a much better chance of being accessible to household members and visitors rather than relying on a website that could be shut down at a moment’s notice.
So the question remains, why? Knowledge, in its most basic form, is meant to expand thought. It promotes creativity, experimentation, and philosophy. Knowledge is a form of freedom. Online resources and educators alike serve agendas that fail in their role of satisfying man’s thirst for knowledge. Many of our social overlords would prefer us dumb, reliant upon the experts, and trusting the plan rather than thinking for ourselves. I’ve told my daughter in a positive and upbeat spirit that it will be her generation that solves many of the current global problems plaguing society… whether it be ending world hunger, discovering a new form of energy, or finding a cure for cancer. Neither of my daughters will be constrained by search algorithms that coerce her into believing half-truths, but rather a solid understanding of civilization’s history and what constitutes the universe around them.
So whether it is a school being closed, a social credit score going into the red, or simply Big Tech trying to alter our understanding of basic definitions, a physical encyclopedia could very well be the gateway into a new renaissance of thought. It was the Renaissance that marked the end of the Dark Ages; perhaps we are now due for one of our own.
Governments don’t want a population capable of critical thinking, they want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation. — George Carlin
