The Trouble with Knowing

Round 2 of the 3-round blogathon!

The Trouble with Knowing, a spinoff of a previous blog post on the cycle of needing experience to get a job to get the money to afford an apartment, which requires that you live in the area and have a job.

To put it as quickly and painlessly as possible, the trouble with Knowing is that no one wants it.
Knowing isn't profitable for you and it's not profitable for Them. In fact, Knowing takes away from Their bottom line, so they have two good reasons to not want you to Know.

This is all really vague and confusing, so let me elaborate.

What do I mean by "Knowing," first of all?
Mostly facts about the world, humans, relationships, interactions, culture, statistics. Having a good analytical grasp of the places we inhabit and travel.

It's all largely worthless except a few key things, many of which are still worthless unless you wish to abuse your knowledge.

Who do I mean by "They"?
The people you depend on to survive. People with money.
You are one of three things to Them-
1. A customer/consumer
2. A salesman to sell to the customer/consumer for Them
3. One of Them

Before I continue, I'd like to make a disclaimer, that I don't intend to pass Them off as evil (despite clearly using an Us vs. Them setup in my argument). They are not all bad people. The unfortunate reality is, however, that most of Them are willing to abuse their knowledge, and I believe that merits Them a separate category which places money over people.

So, why isn't Knowing profitable to you?
Most jobs don't require knowledge of anything except salesmanship. And that's going to be the key bit of Knowledge that you should know. Being a good salesman. How to tell people what they want without them realizing it. How to make something totally useless seem like the most important thing on the planet. How to overwhelm them with knowledge so that they're forced to defer to you if it's something they're forced to get, or how to shmooze them into the next tier up if it's something they just want. Being a good salesman is the Knowledge.

But what will Knowing about gender struggles get you? Who will pay you for your wealth of information about transgender studies?
What about micro-economics?
Or Cartesian dualism?
Who will buy your vast expanse of Freudian psychoanalytic theory?

Theoretically, all areas of Knowledge have some money in them, but the problem is that most of that money is in writing books or teaching other people that same Knowledge. Few jobs practice the theoretical Knowledge, and obtaining them requires you to jump through uncountable hoops before reminding you that no one will pay attention to you now that you have that job unless you're also writing on the subject.
And all of that requires that you become so proficient in that field of Knowledge that everything else sort of slips by you. You spend a third of your life or more acquiring the status necessary to write on the topic. And even then, few people will read it and even fewer will take it seriously.

But am I not defining "profit" a little poorly? Don't we enhance our lives through much of this Knowledge?
You may not become a clinical psychologist with your BA in psychology, but you know a lot more about the human mind and people, don't you?

Well, yes. But you'll be taken far less seriously than the people who devote that third of their lives to one specific facet of that Knowledge set. So much so that your friends are the only ones who may listen to you.
And whatever practical knowledge you have, even if it's exactly the same as a "professional" of the field, will only be able to be applied to your own life as a result of your lower status.

So yes, Knowing can help us lead a more fulfilling life perhaps. But it's not profitable.


Now, why don't They want us to Know? It seems like They would be more neutral to the topic, wouldn't They?
Not exactly. One of the other "benefits" of Knowing is that the more you Know, the less likely you are to be sold something.
Since They only see you as a consumer, salesman, or one of Them, They need you to be buying if you're not already selling, although They'd prefer you to do both. If you're resistant to both, you're in Their way.

So, not only is your Knowledge not helping Them, it's actually hurting Them. Not in a very measurable degree, of course. Like an ant biting you, Knowing is merely a nuisance to Them. Unless you're willing to abuse that Knowledge.
If you're willing to use what you Know about people and the world to sell them something they don't need, then you can transcend the first two roles to become one of Them.

And like I said, not all of Them are bad. You could sell something to the people that is useful and you can appreciate Knowledge as one of Them. But ultimately, you don't need someone with Knowledge like you need someone to sell your product. So, you must reluctantly follow Their way of life. And who would blame you? You need to feed yourself too.

Is there anything we can do?

Not really. Short of everyone (or at least the majority) having the capacity and desire to Know, most Knowledge will remain underwhelming. So the best bet is to teach as many people as possible to Know. Once Knowing catches on, then the world can shift itself to incorporate that Knowledge, and then we start the process over.
But one thing will never go away- the value of being able to sell someone something they don't need. And that's why They'll always have power. Because there will always be a demand for frivolity and, thus, someone to sell it.


I am so sorry for today's post. It is weird and confusing...

-
Waddles