We are all familiar with the saying “Knowledge is power.” The power of knowledge is exactly what makes reading dangerous. The ability to read establishes the potential to access information that can be used to to:
- Motivate
- Inspire
- Encourage
- Develop Independent Thinking
- Affect Change
- Make Improvements
- Stimulate Personal Growth
- Undo Conditioning
This is why it was against the law for slaves to learn how to read. This is why book banning exists. Books open the mind to a world of infinite possibilities. Books educate, entertain, and empower. Books contain formulas that can be applied to every day life.
Crack open a book and crack codes to living life abundantly. Apply the Knowledge and Exercise Your Power! Not reading is the true danger. The opposite of knowledge is ignorance.
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”—Frederick Douglass
“To educate a man is to unfit him to be a slave.”—Frederick Douglass
“A little learning, indeed, may be a dangerous thing, but the want of learning is a calamity to any people.—Frederick Douglass
According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, 85 million adults in the United States-almost 30% of the population-have very low or low literacy skills.
43% of those with the lowest literacy skills live in poverty.
Only 30% of adults with very low literacy skills have full time jobs.
“Hi,
This is a good post. This is the stuff I was actually looking for.
I have a question though – Frequent number of times I have got a warning as “spam” when I try bookmarking on sites like dig.com or muti.com.
I don’t have any spam pages or websites.
Any idea why do I meet with all these?
Thanks.”
Most excellent article and I thoroughly enjoyed the quotes from Frederick Douglass, a man that all should admire.
It is difficult for me to comprehend the ignorance of mankind, especially in our own country which was founded on the premise of religious tolerance and freedom from the yoke of oppression enacted by England and yet, we many Americans practiced, and still practice ethnocentrism. Here’s a quote from a South Carolina law:
The Slave not being regarded as a member of Society, nor as a human being, the Government, instead of providing for his education, takes care to forbid it, as being inconsistent with the condition of chattelhood.
CHATTELS are not educated! And if human beings are to be held in chattelhood, education must be withheld from them.
South Carolina.—Act of 1740: “Whereas, the having slaves taught to write, or suffering them to be employed in writing, may be attended with great inconveniences; Be it enacted, that all and every person and persons whatsoever, who shall hereafter teach or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe, in any manner of writing whatsoever, hereafter taught to write, every such person or persons shall, for every such offense, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds, current money.”
And a law enacted in Savannah, Georgia:
“The City has passed an ordinance by which any person that teaches any person of color, slave or free, to read or write, or causes such persons to be so taught, is subjected to a fine of thirty dollars for each offense; and every person of color who shall keep a school to teach reading or writing is subject to a fine of thirty dollars, or to be imprisoned ten days, and whipped thirty-nine lashes!”
Yes, the opposite of knowledge is ignorance, just as the opposite of love is fear. I so look forward to the time when knowledge and love have won the day.