The above quotation comes from the father of our Constitution as well as he also being our 4th President, James Madison. This wisdom holds as true today as it did back then, signifying that any governance that desires to have its population be in the dark, or ignorant, about those matters of fundamental importance, is not only governance gone wrong, but is clearly not a government that has any real interest in serving the people well, at all. Let’s face it, those that are lacking in proper and fundamental educational achievements, are typically going to be the very same people that are far easier to manipulate, to mold, to exploit, and to take advantage of. Those then that will not question what needs and should be questioned, of their government, make for pliant citizens, which is not necessarily the same thing, as a good citizen, so of.
Those then that are in the know, as compared to those that are not, are thus able to take the knowledge that they have, and use such, for their own personal advantage – though, that said, they can also use such knowledge for the greater good, as well. The thing is, when those that are governed, do not have the ready capacity to hold those that govern them, accountable, for their actions so done on their behalf, then the results, thereof, are going to be exclusively dependent upon the wisdom, integrity, and interests of those that have that powerful knowledge.
There was a time when those in the most powerful of positions, be secular or religious, or both, were the very same entities that utilized their respective dominant positions, to convince credulous others, that their position, was ordained to them, by God, so no earthly power or personage, could ever then question their authority and thus their decision making. For all those that believed such, for instance, because Holy Scripture as promulgated seemed to support this viewpoint, or because all of the material wealth so controlled by these powerful people, was both massive and intimidating in its scale, of which, they had themselves not the knowledge to question this prism, were therefore at their mercy as to what they could thus fairly avail themselves of.
While an ignorant population is far easier to manipulate and to control, over a free thinking people, that sort of governance in which only the few are knowledgeable and the great majority of the population is not, can only going so far, because societies improve and advance themselves based upon their collective knowledge and the throughput of its citizens, in whole. In other words, the more knowledgeable that a given nation is, the better life this will present to the people of that nation, in totality. For we so find, that the injustices, the inequalities, and the unfairness that is so often presented to us in civil society, are best overturned when the people are alert, engaged, and motivated to see that the playing field, that all must play upon, is leveled; and thus, not permanently tilted to favor just one class of people, over everyone else. Those then, in governance, that best support knowledge for all, represent the best servants to the people; and those that do not, don’t.