Comes Great Responsibility

If knowledge is power, and with power comes great responsibility — what comes with knowledge?

It is highly non-debated that we have embarked as a post-modern twenty-first century Western culture into an accessibility of information that has informed and cultured societal, communal and individual realities in ways never-before imagined. What I am saying: you can look up anything you want to know in a matter of seconds, if it does not throw itself at you first by telling you that you want to know it. 

What is ironic about this situation in which so many people are quick to offer their voice and opinion, there is an unsettling silence due to a lack of conversation around what virtue this level of intellectual property demands and requires. 

This is not an effort to keep a “big guy” on top, but so a little guy does not get crushed by a new big guy he did not even realize was getting bigger and bigger. Most people are afraid of what they don’t understand. However, most people are not afraid of the internet (or they at least do not act like it).

If you got a small lioness cub sent to you as a pet from a relative, you would probably look up what to do about a **** lion in your house. The dangers of it, the responsibilities of it, the pros, the cons, the long-term effects, the rate of growth, the attachment risks, the necessary shots, etc. The quick medical web search that my mom does any time she senses a slight physiological change that could potentially be a side effect of some condition—this sort of background check seems to be relevant and routine. Except, when was it ever done when it came to the surfacing of the world wide web and our intellectual accessibility to it? 

Granted, there has had to have been tests and diagnostics run during its developmental stages and governments at least have exercised some control. But when you look at the base, individual level of accessibility and weigh it against the communicated responsibility, there is a scary large deficit. 

So what can I offer you?

Check out this podcast and the insight it offers on what knowledge is:

If you are interested in the state of America in this information age and would like to understand what the “attention economy” is, sit down and watch “The Social Dilemma”. Then have a de-brief conversation with some friends.

Lastly, there is such a thing as intellectual virtue in the realm of ethics. There is a way to be intellectually virtuous—to have a conversation in a generous, respectful, kind and intelligent way that gets a point across and makes space for others. There is a way. Pursue it.

True knowledge is yielded in responsibility.