"Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.”
- Nelson Mandela.
If I could have any power in the world, I would definitely stray away from some of the more mainstream, ‘powerful’ abilities. Instead, I would want the power of education and learning. And before you run screaming, hear me out.
As cheesy as it sounds, information really is a form of power - in my opinion, one of the greatest out there. For one thing, how many stories have your heard, read, or seen that have a character trying to hurt, capture, or kill another character because of what they know?
Plus, basically everything and everyone in the modern world measures you based on your knowledge and brainpower. If you want a job in literally any field, from journalism to training dogs at PetCo - they'll need some sort of qualification, some sort of way to say, 'Hey, you're smart, here's the job.' Same goes for society.
Honestly think about it, if you went to a social gathering of any sort and stated to everyone in the room, 'I never went to school, I don't know how to read or write or multiply fractions,' how do you think people would react? I'm pretty sure you'd see two overarching kinds of reactions. The first would be people pitying you.
"I know this really good tutor who lives around here and doesn't cost much money."
"Hey, if you want I can loan you some money to go take some night classes if you'd like."
And the second would be people downright avoiding you.
Literally, just pretending you're not there or trying to exclude you from conversations.
Additionally, let me mention a quote by Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu,
”Watch your thoughts, they become your words. Watch your words, they become your actions. Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”
If you really think about it, the source of your thoughts is the information you’re feeding your brain. People think we believe what we want to believe, but really it’s all conditioning from the environment around us.
In short, that quote essentially means that our thoughts eventually become our futures. If we think about living in a world that's not discriminatory, we strive towards making changes about the real world so that it becomes what we want it to become.
And the best way for everyone to receive information about the hurtful, bad things in the world, is receiving a good education. Even just teaching everyone in the world to do simple things like read to broaden their minds, or write to express themselves, can go a long way. If everyone in the world really knew about how their actions are affecting the environment around them, don’t you think that would really have an impact on human rights and society at least, if not everything else?