A Knight, With A Pen
An obligation to use it for good
I wrote my most recent essay, Contemplating Death, because a number of questions about the relative values we place on Liberty and Life had been rolling through my mind over the past few weeks. Writing helps me order my own thoughts, and I was very interested to read the perspective of others as well.
The comments I received in response to that essay were, as I had assumed they would be, well worth contemplating.
One in particular resulted in even more questions.
VW John mentioned the often quoted phrase “The pen is mightier than the sword.” suggesting that today we have more tools available to us for fighting against perceived injustice than were available to people in past centuries. That words might today be a much more effective tool for bringing about change than the violence that so often had to be resorted to in the past.
At least that is how I interpreted his words.
That leads me to the contemplation of even further questions.
Is it true that the pen is mightier than the sword? Does it matter that the pen can often inspire or direct the sword? The pens of Jefferson and Paine inspiring the swords of common men in Massachusetts?
Importantly, now that publishing is freely available to all has the power of the proverbial pen grown exponentially? Not long ago one had to be rich, or famous, or perceived by gatekeepers of the potential for one, the other, or both, in order to be widely published. Now anyone with an internet connection can put his or her words out there for the entire world to see. How does that impact the power of the pen?
We may peer back in history with romantic eyes to a time of knights and their chivalric codes. Undoubtedly medieval knights were not the paragons of moral virtue we may romantically portray them as today, but there is likely some truth to the mythos surrounding them.
A knight was supposed to use his sword to defend the truth. To use his sword to counter injustice. To use his sword to protect the weak. Indeed as Freemasons we are not only made builders, but made knights as well in both the Scottish and York Rites. We are taught to hold the sword in one hand, the trowel in the other.
It was like that in the novels of the old west that I read as a kid as well. The hero, with his gun, would encounter an injustice, perhaps a widow with children being preyed upon by someone much more powerful, and the hero would step in to put things right. He’d use violence to overcome an oppressor.
These are powerful myths that have guided humanity for a very long time.
Good battling, and eventually overcoming, evil. Often with a solitary man standing tall to symbolize the good.
This brings forth an additional question.
If in our world today, the pen truly is mightier than the sword, and the ability to publish is available to all:
Does the person who can utilize the pen effectively have a moral obligation to do so when he or she perceives injustice?
Just as the mythological knight of old had a duty to utilize his sword, and the mythological cowboy of the old west novels had a duty to utilize the gun at his side?
I must also wonder, in today’s world, is the pen limited to the written word?
VW John makes mention of other formats. Are videos, podcasts, and other new forms of media also effective tools to fight off those who would oppress the weak? To redress injustice? Or are they too fleeting to hold long term impact? Surely they are without historical context for us. We have the words of others written thousands of years ago, but newer forms of communication have existed for only a tiny sliver of time.
What do you think?
Do we have a moral obligation to wield our pen against injustice if we have the skills to effectively do so?
In February we will be reading How To Die by Seneca in our Alkemye Book Club. If you’d like to join us (and I hope that you will) all the details are at the link below:
Is the pen mightier than the sword? I believe it is, in many ways. The sword can deal death, which for the person on the receiving end, means and end. The pen can continue to inflict pain as long as the writer is able to continue what they are writing.
Do we have a moral obligation to wield our pen against injustice? I believe we do. To dispel untruths, to educate and inform for the purpose of making society better.
I often think about my university degrees. The restrictions on resources for your research included the exclusion of Wikipedia as a cited source. Why? At one time, Wikipedia was general knowledge that anyone could contribute to, whether they were an expert on the subject or not.
Wikipedia does try to rectify this through the encouragement of participation by scholars and experts in correcting inaccuraies in the content. It's still not perfect but it is an example of individual seeking to right the wrong that is the written word.
As an educator, trainer, teacher, and content developer, I take my responsibility to educate with truth and valuable information, seriously. I research the topics I teach or write about and seek to become an expert so I don't spread misinformation. Many times I am asked questions that I don't know the answer to, and I am honest in telling my students that "I don't know". That is far better than spreading lies or misinformation.
Therefore, my pen, is used to educate, enrich, and improve the students I encounter, with the hope that they carry that knowledge forth.
I believe that we have an obligation not just as good men, but as Americans to stand up and speak out against wrong where ever and when ever we see it. Not just to speak out though, but to at need take the next step.
It's an obligation we have inherited from our spiritual ancestors, from the men and women that marched with Dr. King, to the Vets in Athens TN who used the skills they learned on the battlefields of Europe and Asia, back to Teddy R, back to MWBs G. Washington, Ben Franklin, T Jefferson and the boys, and further back to our ancestors in the form of Thomas Becket, the possibly mythical Robin of Loxley, and so on, all the way back to Cincinnatus, and Pliny the Elder.
Men, real men, do not just shut up and turn away from injustice and wrong. Social pressure be damned, even if you are one man against the world, "NO, YOU MOVE"