Ancient Wisdom. Modern Conclusions. Ep3- Knowledge is Power or shit?
From ancient school mottos to modern internet scams — how knowledge evolved into powerful shit.
Ancient Wisdom for today- Knowledge Is Power.
I flipped open the first page of our school diary. "Knowledge is Power," it declared.
I asked my teacher about it immediately.
"That's why you come to school," she told me. "To gain knowledge and become powerful. Use it to your advantage."
Five years of childhood instinct couldn’t be wrong. God himself had embedded it in every child: the ability to know who was bullshitting. And I knew my teacher too well. I could smell the shit from a distance. There was no way he was right. My instinct was clear: Knowledge is shit. Nothing more. Nowhere close to power.
One day, my teacher told me it was my turn to announce the ‘thought for the day.’ It was a daily event where a child would share a quote during the school assembly. But that day, it started raining, and the assembly was canceled.
Still, I had a mission. God himself, I felt, had entrusted me with it. I requested the teacher to let me announce it from the speaking room — the tiny room with a loudspeaker that broadcasted across the school.
The teacher, impressed by my commitment, agreed.
"Dear friends, I wanted to give my thought of the day," I announced, waiting until every classroom fell silent. "Knowledge is not power. It's shit. Not the shit you do every morning or the shit the school gives you at lunch. It's worse than that. Don't believe the shitty teachers who tell you otherwise."
Chaos erupted. Innocent children transformed into devils, throwing pencils, erasers, compasses, and tiffin boxes. Teachers sprinted, dodging flying objects. Within minutes, they stormed the speaking room, snatched the mic from me, and kicked the shit out of me.
When my furious teacher told my father, I was stunned. How could they not understand?
"So you think knowledge isn’t power?" my father asked, gritting his teeth.
"Knowledge is anger right now. Definitely not power. If my teacher hadn't given you the knowledge, you wouldn't be angry right now," I said.
My father used the knowledge he had — and showed me his power that day. I felt like shit.
I was banned from speaking at any assembly for the rest of my school life.
That's why I say: Knowledge is shit. Nothing more.
Ten years later, a man in a white blazer and blue tie walked into our coaching class.
"Must be the director," the boy next to me whispered. "Very knowledgeable man."
I nodded, skeptically.
The man smiled. "Today, I will give you an important lesson you should remember for life. It will help you achieve anything you wish for," he said.
Everyone leaned in.
"Knowledge is power," he declared.
I got up, kicked him in the balls until I heard no noise from him, and left the coaching center.
But they had knowledge about me — from the forms I had filled. They used that knowledge to destroy my career.
Knowledge is shit. Nothing more.
Ten years later, I dropped my nephew off at school. I looked up and froze. On the wall: "Knowledge is Power" — proudly inscribed.
Thirty years, and nothing had changed.
Thirty years of instinct, sixteen years of schooling, one year of prison time, and countless job rejections couldn't be wrong. Knowledge had dragged me into every mess I was living now.
Knowledge is shit. Nothing more.
And shit couldn't be power. Right? If it were, people would've opened libraries in their toilets. Governments would've subsidized public toilets. And no one would be uneducated anymore because everyone would be gaining knowledge — for free — while pooping.
I was frustrated. I had to enlighten the world. But I was ordinary, penniless, and educated. Power didn’t even brush past people like me. In fact, it rested more with the uneducated and the idiots of the world.
I had to survive. But the knowledge about my real qualifications kept getting in the way. So I found a solution: I gave the wrong knowledge about my degree. Employers didn’t care to verify. They employed me.
See? That’s what happens when you ignore unnecessary knowledge.
One day, my boss called me.
"Go through this report and submit the file before the end of the day," he said, tossing it onto his desk.
I flipped it open as I looked through it while walking back to my desk. It was full of useless, shitty knowledge about a bank.
My mouth fell open.
I stormed into my boss's office. "Look, sir. This is the proof."
He frowned. "Proof of what?"
I gasped. "That knowledge is shit. Nothing more."
"What? Are you an idiot? This is the information you need to shut the bank. Powerful information," he snapped. "This is knowledge. Use it to your advantage."
I clenched my hands around the file and used it — to smack him across the head.
He fired me immediately.
Knowledge is shit. Nothing more.
Ten years later, still jobless, I watched as a new thing called "social media" took over.
You could fake information online, mail fake HRs, get fake interviews, and fake your way into jobs — or scams.
Knowledge now helped scammers loot people's life savings. It helped companies stalk individuals and sell them garbage. It helped governments rig elections and make democracy meaningless. It helped bigots spread their hate and create a disturbed, divided world. It helped autocrats grab power and curb dissent. It helped create a society based on validation, accelerated lack of self worth and increased disillusionment among the youth.
Modern knowledge had evolved: from useless to dangerous.
At a school alumni meet, I bumped into my old teacher.
"Hey Ken! Where have you been? I heard you work in some internet company," he said.
"Yes," I nodded, humbly.
"What's your work profile?"
"I help people waste time on the internet," I said.
He frowned. "Waste time? You mean… all of us waste time on the internet? You mean… social media is useless, and we are idiots?" He shook his head. "Anyway, how do you help people waste time?"
I chuckled.
"By feeding you unwanted knowledge. Overwhelming you until you become mentally disabled and incapable of thinking for yourself."
He kept thinking about what I said. Finally, he asked:
"So you mean knowledge is shit?"
I smiled.
"No. It's power. You just need to know how to use it — to destroy others' lives."
Modern Conclusions:
Modern Knowledge is not power... it's powerful shit.
Ancient Wisdom, Modern Conclusions is a short series where I take age-old wisdom and apply it to adult life — with predictably terrible results. Think of it as life advice in reverse: I mess up, so you don’t have to (but also, you probably still will).
This is part of a hilariously bad decision-making series I call ‘Ancient Wisdom. Modern Conclusions.’
Read Episode 1- Ancient Wisdom. Modern Conclusions.
Read Episode 2- Ancient Wisdom. Modern Conclusions.