You stand in a place where time is irrelevant, where the mountain citadels in the distance stand guard, where the wind brings no change and where the very rock under your feet stays to protect a sacred memory, which at times seems long forgotten.  Here, physical changes will come and go, but in the air will always linger the faint whisper of a story which defined the human condition, and which refuses to let the shifting winds of culture take away its lesson.  You stand here and listen for this whisper, moving a thoughtful gaze to the rubble which stands before you.  It will tell you how its cracked and time weathered yet timeless façade used to represent the greatest institution of man, and how the most fundamental enemy of this institution, man himself, caused its untimely destruction.  It is here, at the Library of Alexandria, where our story of knowledge begins.

In the beginning, order was derived from chaos.  From nothing, in the smallest instant there became an infinity of everything, rushing outward at infinite velocities to infinite distances for infinite years and still today, it’s all in flux.  But, inexplicably, we find order.  Carl Sagan called it cosmos.  Darwin might have called it the natural world.  But nevertheless, we look outward at this chaos around us and are able to find enlightenment, wisdom, knowledge.  This gift of ours, this ability to create inward order from outward chaos, is the founding pillar in one of the greatest institutions of mankind- the pursuit of knowledge.  We live in a world of paradox, of infinitely complex and unknowable interactions of things great and small which, without the thoughtful gaze of its diligent observers, is nothing more than an abundance of fragmented ideas.  We have the ability to make those ideas part of a whole.

You see the library in a new light.  You see it in construction rather than in decay, you hear the steady clamor of activity surrounding its stony walls, and feel the hope of the citizens of a city filled with potential and curiosity.  Under the flourishing rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the library is dedicated to the Muses, the 9 goddesses of the arts.  Before it is filled with scrolls, the vast space within is filled with the noblest aspirations of a collective species in a time where the thirst for knowledge is just being realized.

So often undiscussed is the potency of education in the quest for the betterment of society as a whole.  We all know the politicians and the big businessmen, the privatized emperors of the modern age, the 1 percent whose voices are heard louder than the other 99 percent.  We hear them making promises that glimmer with the fallacies of deception, campaigning on delusion with plans for change that feed off small-mindedness, bias, and a hungry desire for personal gain.  They talk of war, mostly, rallying their citizens with the easy bonding agent of hate, using fear to create conflict and mistaking violence to be the path to a better future.  But too often ignored is the potential of education to solve these problems and these feuds that have gone unsettled for decades, even centuries.  In a pivotal time like today when technology advances at an exponential rate, the need for effective global action on the myriad of issues facing our generation cannot be overstated.

To diligent listeners, the library will show its heart.  It lets you glimpse, if just for a second, its vast collection of books, curated and cultivated with painstaking detail by people of all nationalities who came together for a single, unifying purpose.  It lets you walk inside, standing among the likes of Aristarchus, Hipparchus, and Eratosthenes, all of whom were some of the first to gaze out at the ocean of the universe and realize that they were on an island. You stand on the very stone that, in a distant memory, is collapsed in rubble under feet whose steps have not yet been taken.  You realize why the whisper refuses to leave that hallowed ground, and you realize that a small part of it has always been with you, beckoning you to come and gaze at the vast waters of the unknown as it once did to the patrons of that sacred place.

In a world where perceptions are marred by so many distorted versions of truth, truly objective fact is the single most valuable resource available to mankind.  This fact, this opinionless, undeniable truth, is mined from our surroundings only through the combined effort of many who dig deep and simply observe.  Like artists, they paint what they see, not what they think they remember.  It’s a team effort, and this fact is not set in stone but rather flexible and able to change shapes to account for new discovery.  People who seek it overcome one of the greatest obstacles of the human mindset- they let go of their own preconceptions and prejudices and open themselves to truth.  Doing this has countless rewards, and has the capability to impact society in the best way possible.  We create medicines that alleviate suffering for millions, feed the hungry with more efficient crop growing techniques, and lessen our environmental impact by developing alternate energy sources.  We have connected the world to itself with the development of groundbreaking communications technology and the internet, which allows us to broaden our perspectives and share ideas at the speed of thought.  Education is the method by which we can perpetuate this noble and everlasting pursuit of knowledge, which, when unobstructed, can revolutionize the wellbeing of our species and our world as a whole.

But humans are fickle, and rash, and envious, and all too susceptible to the allure of the blissful ignorance that comes when you look away from that ocean and become blind to the infinity of the unknown.  They are limited by the content of their opinion, so they let the bias of subjectivity control their actions.  They no longer see the fault of violence, or so much the virtue of empathy, because they have forgotten so quickly the stark and infinite beauty of that ocean.  So the library burns.  It doesn’t happen all at once, but rather gradually, with many fires over many years for many reasons that now seem insignificant.  Each is borne from hatred.  The heat is suffocating, and the air presses in around you, narrowing your vision and making you forget, too.  All you can hear is the endless cacophony of war, and the discordant yells of blind dictators ordering the persecution of knowledge itself.  In the midst of chaos, the books burn silently in quiet martyrdom. 

And yet, despite all of the good that this knowledge and the education of our people has offered with pure intentions, it is often hated and feared.  For ages, scholars have been imprisoned, schools have been burned, and journalists have been killed.  Discoveries, the fragile flowers of observation and the most painstakingly critical thought, are crushed under the merciless feet of the powerful, the rich, and even the common people as well, maddened by hate and false promises.  Today, many of the most horrible atrocities are committed against the innocent promoters of education.  There’s the abduction of over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls by Boko Haram and the beheading of journalists by the Islamic State.  There are the countless crimes committed not against education but caused by ignorance and extreme prejudice, such as the Charleston Church Shooting and the terrorist attacks on Paris.  And there are the many perpetuated lies that block proven fact from bettering the lives of millions, like the refusal to give impoverished people access to birth control to help remedy population growth, and denial of proven climate science that is creating gridlock in a time where climate action is crucial in alleviating the problems of the next generation.  This saddening and seemingly endless war against education and science has existed for as long as humanity itself, and no end seems to be in sight. 

You now smell the phantom stench of ash long blown away by superficial change. The immense and infinite vista of the unknown tugs faintly at your memory.  So much is lost at the hands of this ignorance, this prolific disease that is, in theory, so easy to cure.  Countless texts containing the cornerstone discoveries of the time and firsthand historical accounts are lost forever, and humanity lost a significant part of its identity, its past, and its future.  This tragic degradation of the human condition goes unnoticed as eyes shift to the bloody Roman conquests and rise of Christianity, which, by creating increased religious tensions, brought about devastating persecution for the few scholars who remained in Alexandria, fighting hopelessly to perpetuate the ideals of the library.  In 415 AD, Hypatia, the last recorded scholar in Alexandria and first woman in mathematics in astronomy, was brutally murdered by a Christian mob.  With her, the last living vestige of the Alexandrian pursuit of knowledge was destroyed, and the world became shrouded in the stealthy darkness of ignorance.

It is ignorance which consolidates all enemies of positive change, and all enemies of education and knowledge itself.  It is ignorance to which nearly every problem facing humanity can be traced today, and it is ignorance which we must overcome to create a better world for the next generation.  The power-hungry and the wealth-crazed and those deluded by outdated but perpetuated schools of thought are those fueled by willing ignorance, the ones who, with strategy and finesse, block forward progress and gain sadistic pleasure when they crush flowers of discovery under their feet.  But the other, much larger majority are those who are ignorant not by choice, but by circumstance.  They are not ignorant, in fact, so much as they are unaware.   They are those who have known no other life, who haven’t been given the opportunity to discover for themselves what they believe in.  And they are the people who we must aspire to change.  They are often unknowing victims of the propaganda of the willingly ignorant, and they fall prey to fear mongering and a tradition of hatred when they could instead learn to inspire positive change.  What we need to give them is opportunity.

The whisper remains not out of spite. 

People have the amazing ability to inspire each other, to unify themselves towards a common goal and forget their differences and their old hate.  Right at this moment, we can rise together and defeat ignorance with education.  We can become the problem solvers, and we can raise a generation that is self-sufficient and enterprising because they are given the opportunity to make discoveries for themselves.  We can reduce inequalities by educating those who would not have otherwise gone to school, which would eventually bring more people into professional fields.  We can keep families who have been economically repressed for decades out of menial and forced labor professions by providing career education and training opportunities, creating new economic growth that benefits everyone.  We can reduce overpopulation risks and alleviate countless diseases with practical sex education as well as the introduction of newer, more efficient farming practices.  What we need is not a change in policy, but a change in attitude. Shared knowledge unifies us, transcends borders and culture.  The decision to end its persecution is ours, and ours alone, to make.

There are many in number, who, like you, have seen the ocean of the unknown and feel not fear, but awe.  There are those who wield curiosity, passion, and the wisdom gained from gazing at that ocean as weapons against this ignorance and do good for the world.  You know this, now, as you stand in this timeless place where the mountain citadels watch, curious now, hungry for change, and the rubble under your feet has just shared with you a sacred memory.  Here, that faint whisper is about to become a roar.  It is a call for change not acted on through violence but through the sharing of this vastly beautiful yet finite river of knowledge, many times almost dammed through persecution, that now leads its followers through many tributaries to the sparkling ocean of the unknown.