To a Better World

The greatest mistake we have made as a species is putting a price tag on knowledge. Someone once told me that the Library of Alexandria, the greatest tomb of knowledge of the Ancient World, had its volumes bound and locked in chains. Learning and science, "the pursuit of knowledge", was limited to men of the high born. More than 2000 years since, we continue to make the same mistake. Education, as we define it today, has become nothing but a sale of papers certifying that its holder is capable of this or that.

I remember learning that the Buddha described a good teacher as one who does not hold what is called a "guru mushti"- the denial of some vital knowledge to ensure that the disciple never becomes better than the guru. This foolish practice common at the time ensured that great things like the knowledge of herbal medicine and feats of ancient civil engineering were forever lost to humans.

We continue to do this, in a modernized form, by controlling access to information and education. Instead of guarding knowledge from slaves, women and other pestilences, today, we educate only those who can afford it. "Pay to continue", educators scream in bold, black fonts. The method may be different, but the result of these shackles we put on ourselves are the same as they were millennia ago- they hinder the advancement of mankind.

This is to the young man with sharp eyes who rolled my burrito because he couldn't afford to go to college anymore, this is to all my friends who had to settle for less because their dreams were too expensive, this is to me for smiling awkwardly and walking away empty-handedly because I did not have money to buy that over-priced education pack.

No, I don't want your charity. What I want is a world where humans' inborn curiosity is fed, where you can ask a question and get an answer without having to pay for it, where every child inherits all that is of value that his or her forefathers have reaped, a world where knowledge is free.