My dad used to always tell me, “Knowledge is power!” maybe in an amusing effort to motivate me to get my homework done, I don’t know; but if it was then maybe, just maybe, he was right. Looking back now I do wish I had tried harder to become a better student, though I do not think myself stupid, knowledge is a great asset to have. Although knowledge is not exactly the greatest power, whereas faith and God would then come into play, but to us as humans; it’s really all we have.
I heard someone say, though I don’t remember who, that, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Now if this then is true then perhaps The Book of Sands is a book that was filled with infinite knowledge. Perhaps there was no first page because, apart from God, knowledge has no beginning, and to our knowledge it also has no end, which is why we discover knew things every day.
I feel that The Book of Sands (which I read every sentence of) can be written to mean any number of things. But the conclusion I am most drawn to is one I have already stated, that knowledge is power and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Knowledge builds things and destroys things. It creates things and perverts things. It motivates and discourages. It loves but it also fights. Knowledge [power] gives us the ability to build bridges, but also the capacity to blow them up. Knowledge [power] creates ideas for newer things and a better future, but it also can turn those things against us. Knowledge [power] helps us mend our broken hearts, but at the same time birthed the conflict that broke our hearts.
As the author acquires this book, he is intrigued at its first showing. He sees that the book is indeed special, but to what extent? As he made the trade with the traveling tradesman, he had every intention I’m sure of discovering its secrets. (“I examined the worn binding and the covers with a magnifying glass, and rejected the possibility of some artifice. I found that the small illustrations were spaced at two-thousand-page intervals. I began noting them down in an alphabetized notebook, which was very soon filled. They never repeated themselves.” Pg. 7)
He even sacrificed some of his favorite things. (“I showed no one my treasure. To the joy of possession was added the fear that it would be stolen from me, and to that, the suspicion that it might not be truly infinite. Those two points of anxiety aggravated my already habitual misanthropy. I had but few friends left, and those, I stopped seeing. A prisoner of the Book, I hardly left my house.” Pg. 7)
Calling himself a prisoner, by choice, he locked himself in his house learning the books secrets and taking note of every detail. I don’t know about you but this sounds like a man who is hungry for power [knowledge]. It’s only when he realizes his own imprisonment that I believe he sets himself free. Taking the book to a safe place (Just like the tradesman he bought it off of) where no one will find it… hopefully.
This message of absolute power [knowledge] corrupting absolutely matters not only to me as a college student but to the professors I have, and to their deans, and to their Vice Presidents, and to the President.
Adolf Hitler claimed to know why the economy was struggling and gave the people an answer. To him, because he knows it’s false, is not knowledge, but to everyone else it’s truth, its knowledge. And Joseph Stalin was the same way, as was Mussolini. These men claimed to have absolute power [knowledge] about their countries current conditions, and provided a “solution” only to become the ultimate problem.
Hopefully then it’s safe to say that The Book of Sand is hidden, so that no one can profess true absolute knowledge [power],I because it’s not meant for anyone to have. This is why believe there to be things out there, somewhere, that will remain undiscovered until the good Lord takes us home. It matters because to you; it shouldn’t matter. Absolute power [knowledge] is absolutely unnecessary.
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