Free Write-Knowledge

 

 This is where Mary Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein lived in Cologny, Switzerland

Rick's prompt was "How dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge?" asked by Mary Shelley. She lived in the next village to where we were writing. We passed the house on the way to our Tuesday Free Write.

Rick's Free Write

Is knowledge power?

Or does ignorance lead to power?

Perhaps both could be true.

The powerful exploit the ignorant.

So the danger of knowledge acquisition is that the powerful lose their hold over the no-longer ignorant.

Yet knowledge itself is not enough.

You might be able to win a trivia game show.

But can you overcome a powerful corrupt boss or politician?

The key is the knowledge of how to best apply your knowledge. How to play the system and the rules lawfully to maneuver the powerful into self-destruction.

What good is a Frankenstein without a brain to control it?

What good is protest if no one listens? If no one acts? If nothing changes?

If nothing changes, what value is the power of knowledge?

Would we be better off as ignorant sheep, oblivious?

Time to flip the switch.

 Rick Adams is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices.com He is the author of The Robot in the Simulator. AI in Aviation Training.

D-L's Free Write 

"How dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge?" Martha stood in front of her class of high school seniors, slumped in their seats sulking because she'd confiscated their mobiles.

 She didn't think these kids would ever be in danger. They seemed to treat learning like it was a disease.

They weren't bad kids. At least she hoped they weren't. She thought of old movies like To Sir With Love staring Sydney Poitier who turned almost delinquents into motivated students.

 "Come on. Someone say something."

Nothing.

"Jason?"

Nothing.

"Think if a husband finds out his wife has been cheating," Martha said.

"That's why my parents are divorced," Amy said. 

"Sounds like one of those stupid chick flicks," Adam said.

 For the rest of the class, they argued about chick flicks against guy flicks. 

When the bell rang the class erupted from the room.

Martha sat at her desk. Why bother, she wondered, but then decided she would not give up.

D-L has had 17 fiction and non fiction books published. Check out her website at:. https://dlnelsonwriter.com Her 300 Unsung Women will be published this month.

JuIia's Free Write

She knew that she would have to be careful, but her whole being strived and longed to learn.

Never mind that she lived in a country where women were forbidden an education, prevented from even buying books.

For a while her mother and a couple of aunts had tried within private homes, but when one aunt disappeared, they became too afraid.

He had been born up in the hills, far from civilization – if one can call it that with all the daily killings – no books, no means of even obtaining pencil or paper.

He was taught by one elder who had been off the mountain – secretly, twig and sand serving as supports to learn letters.

They both managed to obtain a basic capacity to read and write, something which would eventually allow them to save their own histories for a time when learning might become accepted again.

“How dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge.”  A question posed by Mary Shelly. In both their cases they would have paid with their lives had it been known that they were acquiring knowledge.

 Julia has written and taken photos and loves syncing up with friends.  Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/