They Say Knowledge is Power

Knowledge is power, or so Sir Francis Bacon said in his 1597 Meditationes Sacrae. And we've been repeating it ever since. But is it really?

On the surface, it makes sense, doesn't it? Of course, knowledge is power! Why wouldn't it be? Doesn't it stand to reason that the more you know the greater ability you have to pass that knowledge on, to influence people, and to control your own destiny - in other words, to have power?

But in practical terms, it doesn't feel that way. Not even close. In fact, I would go so far as to say the phrase could be updated to say knowledge is loneliness.

That's how I feel and that's what this painting, called The Knowing says to me.

Like the figure in the foreground, I often feel like a lonely voice shouting into the wind, the street devoid of anyone who will listen. Knowledge doesn't matter anymore. Objective facts don't matter anymore. Talent doesn't matter anymore.

Something in the world shifted. Truth has become relative. There's no such thing as "the truth," There's your truth, my truth, their truth. What's true depends on who say utters and who decides to accept it.

We've seen this in politics and the media over the years. Facts aren't facts. Or are they? If enough people repeat it and accept it, it seems they are. Never mind objective reality, if the fact-not fact appeals to enough emotion and fits into the belief system of enough people, somehow it becomes real to them.

It feels counter-intuitive somehow. We're more educated as a society than we ever have been but it feels like we know nothing. And those of us that do know, that do speak up and say, "Wait, that's not true...," well it doesn't matter because no one's listening. Nobody cares. They just go on about their merry lives, sucking up Starbucks and taking selfies.

And if they are paying even a modicum of attention, you're summarily dismissed and ridiculed. Intelligent discourse, an open, respectful exchange of ideas doesn't happen. There's no debate, just emotion. Anything that makes anyone feel uncomfortable is shut down in the name of feelings.

I want to have the debate. I want to make you uncomfortable. That's how we progress as a society.

I'm sure it was uncomfortable for Susan B. Anthony and her cohorts to get out there and demand the vote for women. I'm sure it was uncomfortable for the abolitionists to advocate the end of slavery.

Today, we have objective facts of life that are just as uncomfortable. Racism is uncomfortable. Homelessness is uncomfortable. Poverty and hunger are uncomfortable. White privilege is uncomfortable.

But rather than deal with these things, we're met with debates over terminology, protests over whether certain historical facts can be taught in schools, and finger-pointing. Textbook weaves and bobs. If you can get the population arguing about the verbiage or the contents of a history course, you've avoided exactly what you wanted to avoid, dealing with the issues.

And I know all that. I deal with words and arguments for a living. I can't be fooled. I can't be thrown off track. Call it my legal training, call it my very stubborn nature, call it what you want. I see it. I know it. But it feels like nobody else does.

So here I am, a lone figure who sees it, who gets it. I've seen too much. I know too much. And I'm tired. So very tired of shouting into an empty void. So very tired of being a creative spirit in a world where AI threatens to take the very bread from my mouth. So very tired of it all.

So tired, in fact, that there are days I wish I didn't know. There are days I wish I could just be a little less smart; when the loneliness of knowledge becomes overwhelming. Days when I feel like I'm being suffocated by it all and wish I could, for a moment, just drink the Kool-Aid, but I just can't. Days when I feel like Winston Smith.

But then I wake up. And I realize I don't want the Kool-Aid. And as lonely as it is, I have to believe that knowing is better than not knowing. Truth is better than lies. Actual talent is better than AI. And it's all going to work out...isn't it?