As Water to Life, so goes Authority to Knowledge
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As Water to Life, so goes Authority to Knowledge
The same goes for the inalienable relationship between Knowledge and Authority. You can have Authority without Knowledge, but not Knowledge before the nurture of Authority. Absent Authority afterwards, acquired Knowledge will die away in due course, sooner than later. It is essential to appreciate that Knowledge is useless unless it is structured and institutionalized, like fish in the pond. Empty the water, and the fish dies.
Megalomaniacs, the foolhardy, and the childish may wrongly take free thinking as the unbound arena to crate and develop their eye-opening system of knowledge to the benefit the world. In reality they are under the delusion of their own persuasion, as the cocoon is woven for their isolation. Out of touch, a person may take himself to be a genius trying to reinvent the wheel, without knowing that the world has gone far beyond the wheelbarrow, and available for his enjoyment. Sadly, he has no one but himself to blame.
Authority's role to organize, condense and crystallize the Structure of Knowledge cannot be over-stated. Initially, information and experience are scattered like rock in a beach. Authority picks a few, but discards most, to build what can be called "the lasting structure of Knowledge" to benefit all. In this connection, the respect of Authority instead of self-aggrandizement is fundamental to any civic society, but that is another issue which I shall not dwell on at the present stage.
2023/2024 Philosophy Books of the Month
Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul
by Mitzi Perdue
February 2023
Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness
by Chet Shupe
March 2023