Is Knowledge really powerful?

I have been doing some thinking lately about the term "Knowledge is power" after spending a good few months away from information sites including this one.

The term "Knowledge is power" is accredited to Sir Francis Bacon who you can read about here if you wish...

www.iep.utm.edu...

Please have a look at these links below that are offering different types of information, that I have randomly picked, before I move onto my point...







www.presstv.ir...

abcnews.go.com...



Right, I could go on and on but theres no point in posting the whole internet in one ATS thread

With the internet came the whole information age where you can get facts on anything, also came an increase in every area be it conspiracies, banking revelations, a change in the news, statistics from the past or future and so on.

A dictionary definition of knowledge is...

acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation; general erudition: knowledge of many things.

dictionary.reference.com...

The general idea is that knowing something is useful and gives you power. Knowledge might also help you make decisions, do something correctly, win a debate, gain a qualification among many things.

However there is a problem today. With so much information available on any topic whatsoever, many people have or still do spend time, myself included, researching, reading, searching for more and more knowledge for various reasons.

My own personal reasons for doing this for over a decade of my life were for bettering myself as a person. I want to share something that I have come to understand and it is not applicable to all avenues of course but it does apply to a dangerously high amount of people, of that I am fairly certain.

If you spend a long time reading theories, statistics, facts, news, opinions, predictions based on previous facts or anything that is based on patterns or past events.

You will find that knowledge becomes weakness as it leads to a lack of action.

I say this because this type of knowledge leads you to believe you understand how things will begin and the way they will end.

One example I am meaning is as follows...

If you were interested in starting a business by yourself, you would naturally research this first, you would look at statistics, past trends, future trends and so on. Which mostly results in a pattern of how successful you think that business would be or not. This is why most people walk away from a new business idea they have.

This same knowledge outlook is quite apparent in life in a broad sense if you take some time to look around. Many people are put off sports for fear of breaking bones (statistics). Many people are put off from travelling (terror). Many people are put off politics (past corruption).

I am sure my point might be making sense by now, it should be and I will spell it out

Knowledge is not power.

Wisdom is power. A combination of essential information which is simply things you need to operate combined with life experience.

I guess the main thing I am trying to get through to people about here is, LIVE YOUR LIFE and stop reading utter garbage from the people who are wise because they live!

With that said. Im off for a while, goodbye to knowledge and hello to wisdom.

Enjoy because it has a point...

I began reading your post expecting what I've come to know as "intellectual self-indulgence", arguing the subtle points of someone else's philosophy, but I then saw how much wisdom there is in what you are saying. Hell, I'd even go so far as to say you've cast illumination upon a fundamental fact of life that is almost completely unacknowledged, at least in western society.

Kudos my friend, you made my day with this thread.

You make a strong valid point in your example.

Knowledge breeds ignorance of understanding.

I'd rather be ignorant in knowledge than ignorant in understanding. You can't teach someone to understand, they either have it or they don't. Ever seen someone ignorant of understanding try to use there higher education gained over other people? They be the ones that like to think that they can use their degrees to say that they are more than someone else. But if they lack understanding, then all that knowledge just makes them look like a fool that cant be reasoned with. With understanding comes wisdom. A person with wisdom is able to be reasoned with. A person with just knowledge will stick to their knowledge even if it is invalid or the root of the problem.

There is no wisdom in knowledge alone. Schools don't teach wisdom. Wisdom is how power comes into play. Knowledge is not how power comes into play. You can know something, but if you cant put it into play it shows how knowledge can be useless and thus reveal not ever being powerful.



[edit on 6-5-2010 by Tormentations]

This reminds me of an analogy I heard a few days ago.

"A mighty Eagle fell from the sky and landed in a chicken coop. When it awoke, it thought it was just like all the other chickens. So it started to walk and cluck like a chicken. One day another Mighty Eagle swooped down to see what was going on.

It said "What are you doing down here?". The Eagle says "I'm a chicken, I'm supposed to be here."

Then the Eagle opened it's mighty wings. It blocked out the Sun and created gusts of wind. It said "THIS is what you are!"

Knowledge is indeed power!



[edit on 6-5-2010 by manbird12000]

Originally posted by manbird12000
This reminds me of an analogy I heard a few days ago.

"A mighty Eagle fell from the sky and landed in a chicken coop. When it awoke, it thought it was just like all the other chickens. So it started to walk and cluck like a chicken. One day another Mighty Eagle swooped down to see what was going on.

It said "What are you doing down here?". The Eagle says "I'm a chicken, I'm supposed to be here."

Then the Eagle opened it's mighty wings. It blocked out the Sun and created gusts of wind. It said "THIS is what you are!"

Knowledge is indeed power!



[edit on 6-5-2010 by manbird12000]

Well i differ...the story is alike wisdom AND knowledge. When someone is blinded from knowledge, they don't know (like the chicken coop). When wisdom is blind, they don't who they are (Eagle being the chicken).

Three things we need to be power: Wisdom, love and faith

Well IMHO,

Wisdom is power, for it is applied knowledge.

To have knowledge, is worthless, if you only know and cannot do a thing.

Just my thoughts.

Originally posted by Quickfix
To have knowledge, is worthless, if you only know and cannot do a thing.

To take action requires knowing what to do next .. that takes imagination as often there are many obstacles to deal with.

Well said! Wisdom, the applied action of obtained knowledge, is power, not the actual information itself. Only when properly applied does it become power as it is used accordingly.

However, knowledge applied for other purposes such as enslaving or controlling less intelligent individuals is also power but not wisdom because of the action it used for.

The more you know the more confused you can get also, which is why after my years of research and confusion, the only solid things I could follow and put into action, were backed by basic simple principles that everyone knows from instinct. The problem is, is we are too smart, too complicated, get caught up in the details and because of such, forget basic principles that allow the world to spin in peace and unison with it's counterparts. One example would be religion.

Again, well said. S&F

reply to post by riley


Knowing something is going to happen and watching it happen and not being able to do a thing makes Adults feel like children.

I've seen it and felt it also.

Wisdom is knowing and applying the knowledge you have gained.

Imagination may help some in trying to get a good idea, I try and stick with what is. The Imagination can run wild and in the end you may be right back where you started.

Dialectic Materialism and books help me see what is, so I may apply a personal method to what I desire.

Wisdom is true power.

reply to post by adkchamp


It's what the Eagle eventually does with that knowledge that births the wisdom it is to attain.

If it never knew what it was, it would never gain wisdom at all. ok, maybe it would be wise in the ways of chicken land!

Actually perceiving is where you take, say, prior knowledge and apply it with relevance.

Example:

If I know you rejected an idea of mine prior, and why, than I can use all that knowledge in perceiving further future similar outcome from you, without you even having to literally do any further rejection.

When you can envision future outcome by prior knowledge, then you've become a seer.

Wisdom can be taking knowledge to do an improvise with it so that it benefits you and/or maybe the source from which the knowledge came.

Where knowledge fails, wisdom improvises.

reply to post by manbird12000


maybe the eagle was playing stupid so he can eat the chickens one by one....

now that's wisdom

You advocate dismissal of the wise thinkers thoughts, and take an anti-intellectual stance to propose that direct experience trumps the theoretical. How does one propose to "live" and become "wise" without theoretical knowledge? How does one turn experience into wisdom without gathering data, analyzing, drawing conclusions, and theorizing about their implications? How do you know what to "experience" and locate yourself if you don't know what the stakes are, what questions have already been asked? How do you make a claim about the "truth" of this thing or that without first grounding your experience in the accumulated knowledge and experience of the thinkers of the past and present? You are advocating ignorance, rather than discernment, throwing the baby out with the bath water.

There was another man who made a similar argument to yours in a book that is largely considered worthless trash, dangerous, and evil:

"In the hard struggle of destiny the man who knows least seldom succumbs, but always he who from his knowledge draws the weakest consequences and is most lamentable in transforming them into action."

"The political preparations, as well as the technical armament for the World War was not inadequate because insufficiently educated minds ruled our people, but because the rulers were overeducated men, crammed full of knowledge and intellect, but bereft of any healthy instinct and devoid of all energy and boldness."

- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

Originally posted by Quickfix
reply to post by riley

 

Knowing something is going to happen and watching it happen and not being able to do a thing makes Adults feel like children.

I've seen it and felt it also.

Wisdom is knowing and applying the knowledge you have gained.

Agreed.

Imagination may help some in trying to get a good idea, I try and stick with what is. The Imagination can run wild and in the end you may be right back where you started.

Dialectic Materialism and books help me see what is, so I may apply a personal method to what I desire.

Wisdom is true power.

My imagination has gotten me into alot of trouble which I have had to think my way out of. It has however provided me with the option of trying approaches that are not usual. There are some kinds of information that I deliberately avoid as it can detract from my own instincts and natural judgement. For many years I was told by others, including experts that something I wanted to achieve was impossible. It was just improbable but I am now in the process of achieving it. They believed they had knowledge but imposed limits on it and therefore had control over my learning. My imagination makes things possible so just disregarding their knowledge made me more powerful.

You can go by the book but, if it doesn't have the answers you can throw the bloody thing away and write your own. Knowledge is power but imagination allows us to gain knowledge without relying on others to give it to us. I do love the internet though as it has taken the option of gaining knowledge away from people who would otherwise withold it.

Reminds me:

www.altiusdirectory.com...
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.

Albert Einstein

ooh this one is very cool too:

www.altiusdirectory.com...
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.

Albert Einstein

and no I didn't learn this from him.. I merely agree with him.

[edit on 6-5-2010 by riley]

reply to post by riley


I would think you would be referring to imagination, as research also.

Like cancer patients, there are many cures for cancer, but those whom don't look will never find out.

The patients trust the Doctors because they are educated by the system which is controlled by the Illuminati.

Some people say "without Love the universe would not exist" But i think it is Thought that first brought about existence.

Imagination is a form of thought, and It is not something that I deem it useless. I day dream(part of the imagination right?), I enjoy it.

I just find that in Material Dialectics, is a more useful process of time then Imagination, since the imagination cannot acquire anything of the material world. Unless a new invention/technology is thought up, which is still going to require materials to create. (which may also be stolen by big brother)

I find Einstein to be a very interesting man. He an amazing theory called the Unified Field theory. If you do not know about it, it was used in the Philadelphia Experiment.

I do find the aspects of the mind and brain very interesting. Much more interesting then Material Dialectics, but Material Dialectics also determine physical life, so it seems more important.

Edited to add: Some of the Doctors don't know there is a cure for cancer, because they only know what is taught to them.

People are taught to live inside the box and not think out of it.


[edit on 6-5-2010 by Quickfix]

reply to post by XXXN3O


the sense of power this is the source of all evils

power is the fake legitimacy to move as free one

this mean that if you dont have power you are immediately considered slave and cannot live or appear living

and that mean too that you can abuse any situation of power to exploit all the advantages it can offer and you are right to expect all the rewards credits to that confirmation powerful move

so you can kill from that logic and then the killed must admit being forever dead but also must admit that you are a free living superior

this is the system that god force to accept

introducing some vulgar rules that create others rules since it cant work, talking about pity as mercy or a vulgar sense of one in certain perspective of the whole ground shares to profit the rich in unity to preserve, nothing else

they say it is time for change but it is a lie, such monsters dont mean but monstruosities to come
and noone change

freedom rights is only for true moves and not powers use

so freedom rights are life as positive certain reality that the move assert it alone itself existing, it says how freedom is to self source, since it cant then hurt itself or anything around living as self too

I've been away as well my friend, and btw, so good to see you.

This applies so much to my own life and how I've always done things. It started when I was younger, when I actually had to ride my bike to a place called a 'library' to get information. And gather I would! Anything and everything. Started out with topics of my own musings, then deeper subjects to enrich myself (art, philosophy, various religions.) Whatever my target is, I immerse myself completely and come out the end feeling like my brain has been in a blender. I don't read just one book, or these days, just one site and say "oh, that's how it is" I research and dig. Try to see things from every angle so I can make my own informed opinion.

A few years ago my target was NWO and as we all here know, there are plenty of books on that subject. Talk about your brain in a blender. Ugh!

As I age, my topics are becoming ones of need and not exactly 'fun' topics anymore so the headaches from research are more frequent but the quest is still unending. For example, learning about autism.

Admittingly, I will probably never completely put down all my books. But I hear you. And on many levels I agree with you, as per usual. Because after I do all of that, I exactly feel like a deer caught in the headlights. And I've used that exact deer term before. Immobile. Unable to act. What to do with the information?

To use your suggestion and my example, the best way for me to learn about autism would be to spend those precious hours with my daughter gaining the wisdom about HER not a statistic in a book or a theory.

I'll also say that reading a lot of those books, especially when I was younger, really opened my eyes and my mind. Growing up in 12 years of Catholic school did not exactly expose me to many other cultures, religions, art, even history, and certainly not a lot of the philosophy I exposed myself to as I grew as person and walked through life, finding my own wisdom.

Miss you N3O, hope life is being good to you.


[edit on 5/25/2010 by Whisper67]