Why can knowledge be a prison?

We live in a bubble of time our great grandparents could never have imagined – knowledge on every possible issue etched into the crevices of information technology, where answers that were once lost to rabbit holes are now available in a .3 second Google search, where opinions and angles and editorials from every direction are begging to be dissected on the internet.

We have the ability to know so much. But is it impossible to know enough? At what point does knowledge trap us? Can overlearning spawn into a critical loss of creativity and subsequently send us down the slippery slope of stupor?

What will we discover if we dig deep into the uncomfortable question: why can knowledge be a prison?

On the one hand, the catechism is a rhetorical one where we should all be screaming a loud “no!” But dig a little deeper into ourselves, and all too often, we discover that we lack the perspective of limitation. We forget that what we know and accept to be accurate, is restricted to our own experiences and the lens of which we devour and value the world. 

When we forget that this limitation hovers over us, that’s where the walls come down, and the prison life begins. On the other side of remembering it is there, is the sweeter smell of knowledge freedom. 

This leads us into the controversy that surrounds organized religion and the binding yes and no that comes with it. The notion of absolutes, there is simplicity in absolutes of being fed what is right and wrong. There is safety in that simplicity, and as humans, we often see the beauty in simplicity too. Does that mean that you willingly commit yourself to a lock-up, or is there room for knowledge to be expanded upon?

Science could also be tossed into that murky mix of interpretation that we so often exclusively associate with religion. Science has the capacity to trap us in the knowledge prison unless we are reminded that science is not necessarily objective. Even among scientists, there are disagreements. 

“We think something is fixed is because of math. But we need to understand that math is a language like English, like French. I can lie using any language, or I can tell the truth,” Will contends. “The math that you were able to prove is just limited to a certain aspect of life that you can control. Because you put the boundaries on how I am testing the model, so even science can be dogmatic in itself, and become a prison.”

And then there is the much waxed up “echo chamber.” Here is something ironic to consider. Of course, we can argue that the echo-chamber no longer exists in the open-faced, broad-shouldered planet of technology that is today. 

We can argue that the internet has handed us an unparalleled ability to see all viewpoints and ingest the other side of the coin of what we thought we knew with a simple click of a mouse. But in the sprawling sea of knowledge that lies inside the connected world, we must ponder: does the internet also just reinforce what we already think we believe? Does it compel us only to seek out the particular perspective that aligns with our lens of the world?

“There might be a flood of people telling you, agreeing with you, for example, that the U.S. troops should be brought home from Afghanistan. You can read a thousand articles that tell you the reasons why the U.S. troops need to be out of Afghanistan,” Hollie conjectured. “And you can read none that tell you why the troops need to stay. So then there is the argument that the internet hasn’t necessarily made us more open-minded, but reinforced that sense of closemindedness.”

With that, we explore the nuances of problem-solving and the emotions that sift into our problem-solving abilities. From Will’s lens, we need to be fully aware that our next decision shouldn’t take into account our experience. Instead, our next decision should be limited to the problem in front of us. We need to extract the extraneous, whitewash the noise, and ask ourselves: what is the best solution?

In some ways, there is a lot to be gleaned from observing a small child. 

“Children have no inhibitions – they’re putting everything in their mouths, they’re touching and using all five senses to look at something until all of a sudden one day they realize that isn’t appropriate anymore,” Hollie noted. “But curiosity is the youth elixir.”

Curiosity is what drives us into the yearning for knowledge and keeps us young; without it, we enclose ourselves into that languishing in the dangerous dungeon of what we already know. So next time you endeavor to solve a problem, it doesn’t hurt to find that inner child, the one who did not let baggage creep in and cloud our problem-solving abilities. The one who did not seek out a thousand opinions to culminate in analysis paralysis or the one who did not develop a habit of co-dependency with the closest advisor.

Finally, as we bang on the walls of our cell in an effort to understand the extent of our knowledge prisons and how to find the key, it is pivotal that we also take a moment to take gratitude in the fact that knowledge – to seek knowledge – is a privilege. Having access to acquire it and the resources to develop it is a treasure denied to too many in the world as a result of their geography, socio-economic status, health, government, and the overall lottery of life. 

With that privilege comes tremendous responsibility. 

“It took me a lot of understanding to realize that I was privileged. That there are certain things that I expect to know, that I knew, that nobody else knows,” Will pondered.

So, slice through the cacophony and conquer the escape. Knowledge is only your penitentiary if you so choose.

The conversation

Listen to this and other complete conversations: HighCrown Talks

More articles: HighCrown Articles

Twitter YouTube LinkedIn