Secret Knowledge

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article9462668.html

Pitts refers to the long-held tendency towards conspiracy theories in his piece, but he doesn't note that these go back a lot further than the JFK assassination.  There's Pearl Harbor, the Illuminati, the Knights Templar...This is an old condition.

But he makes an interesting point that the Age of Google means we have facts at our disposal without the wisdom to evaluate them.  We are a click away from finding all sorts of information, but that information is not always vetted, not always given context,

To me, the point of a modern education is learning how to navigate that world.  It doesn't matter than you can quote Cicero, so much as you have an understanding of Cicero and what he fought for and are able to place that Cicero quote that you looked up on your phone into proper modern context.

We carry the world's most impressive memories around in our pockets, but facts aren't knowledge, they are just the building blocks of knowledge.  Knowledge the building itself.

I'm not sure our education system has caught on to this.