Knowledge is Not Power

The fallacy of the statement 'knowledge is power' lies in the conceptual nature by which power is necessarily derived through the act of juxtaposition. In this statement, the term power is referring to one's ability to control their environment, including others who also occupy this environment. By associating a correlation between knowledge and power, you are assuming these concepts to be measurable in one manner or another, and to also share a discernible direct relationship.

The act of quantifying the conceptual nature of the power which an individual possesses is inconceivable due to the arbitrary approximation which forms the basis of measurement. In examination of the power one is said to possess, it is essential to examine the basis by which this statement is asserted.

When man conquered the seas, we may say man gained power over the sea. When man conquered the sky, we say man gained power over the skies. The issue concerning these statements of absolute nature is the manner in which they intolerably neglect the nature of the concept of power.

Through the act of building a ship to sail the seas, man did not gain control over the seas, man merely used the environment (a ship) to interact with the environment (the seas) while attaining no control over the seas. Similarly, the act of building a plane is merely another example by which man has adapted learned traits of the environment to build a vessel from the environment which exploits what little mankind knows of the physics governing our environment. Mankind did not gain control over the sky, for this is evidenced by the fact that man is still pondering the nature of gravity.

The knowledgeable man knows that any attempts to control his environment are merely in vain. The chaotic existence in which we live is constantly in motion, changing from one moment to the next. Attempts to control this process neglect this characteristic of our dynamic existence. The true nature of knowledge is adaptability. To be knowledgeable of current existence provides a resource by which one can better adapt to a future point of existence. To the contrary, a man who is driven by power lacks the resources needed to maintain a static holding on an ever changing world. Constantly struggling to avoid change, the man of power will devote all his energy to sustaining his current state. When a man of power can no longer sustain this state, he will be left in the foreign and hostile world which had previously been hidden behind the veil of power.

Consider a scenario in which mankind was aware of a global catastrophe which would eliminate all life. A society on one side of the world decided to put all effort and resources into constructed the strongest possible structure in an attempt to survive this catastrophe. On the other side of the world, a society realizes any efforts to survive will be in vain, and instead constructs a durable record of the knowledge possessed by this society. The society driven by power will leave no mark in time, and perhaps it is for the best.

The society which valued knowledge realized that their knowledge will transcend time, and may be found at some point in the future. Knowledge is sustainable, whereas power has no guarantees of sustainability, thus the two can not necessarily equate to one another.