Throughout history nations have come to be and passed by, leaving their mark on existence. Some left legends of grandeur, while other left nothing but their bones to be found by others. Traditions have been passed down mouth to mouth; some nations have left scrolls and pictorial scripts. While others left only remnants of tools and craftworks for a clue about their ways of life. What helped these nations who thrived and chose to do more than just exist to become the beacons of knowledge? These nations became so much more because they were built on a foundation that knew how to purvey their knowledge from one form to another.
Some would say that knowledge is not what forms a nation, but that instead it is a need to move out of the state of nature through a social contract.(John Locke) I believe though that it is through how we are able to purvey our thoughts and ideas that help to make a nation. A nation though is not something that immediately becomes a large conglomerate of people. Nations start out as communities and communities gather together because people collaborate and build a community together.
While talking in the in class Salon, with Jenna and Andrew, it was pointed out that some communities pass down their knowledge in the form of folk knowledge. In the Book of Mormon we can see that the gadianton robbers were passing down their knowledge through means of showing and orally passing on their rituals. It is interesting because in the Book of Mormon you have one nation who is trying desperately to eradicate a community who is attempting to bring about the nations downfall. We figured out that while some knowledge can be bad for a nation it also can at the same time be bringing about the formation of a new community; so all knowledge has the ability to help people to collaborate and form into a community.
While a community can be a rather large group of people there is a certain point at which another form of conveying knowledge is needed to allow people to be governed under one leadership. Folk knowledge and oral knowledge broke down in the past because if people are only able to hear about something by being present when it is either being said or presented then there are vast amounts of people who would never get the chance to know why laws were being enacted or really why they should act the way they are told to act.
Another medium is needed for these people and that medium comes in the form of written and printed knowledge. The oral knowledge once it is written down allowed nation to be able to exist because the people in positions of power now had the ability to convey their message to all of the population.
Previously people had to be present to be able to hear what they were going to be taught but now everyone could have the opportunity to gain new knowledge; that is of course if they could read or could find someone to read it to them. After the advent of paper and printing, while there are different methods of printing wood block(Alex Burton) being one of the very first printing methods that was used before the printing press was developed, just shows how oral messages could be dissemination with greater ability when they could be printed in a mass amount.
With the advent of technology today, the medium which people obtain knowledge has changed again. With television and the internet everyone can have the opportunity to present their knowledge orally and millions upon millions of people can have the opportunity to be able to simultaneously hear the same message. Nations have come and gone but because of knowledge being preserved in its various forms of transmission everyone can have the opportunity to learn and help to build up their own nation. Someday it might even be possible for differences to be overcome and all nations might be able to exist together.
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