Do you believe the pen or keyboard is mightier than the sword?

and intellectuals first. After that, swords rule and everyone suffers and/or dies.

I have a pen that is also a knife, but it should also be noted that I don't keep my guns near my bed...
I have three swords and eight throwing blades.



My favorite is my Norse Damascus :)

:)

:yourock:

I am partial to my naval cutlass I got from them, but have picked up other very nice blades there.






:smoke:

My family tries to hide the catalogs from me. :evilgrin:

They gave me the Norse Damascus one last year for my b-day and it has a place right next to the bed where I can get to it right away
whether I need it or not.
Then I have the Seax next to my computer along with the Dragon axe my sister gave me a few years ago.

Terry Pratchett quotes
From: http://thinkexist.com/quotation/the_pen_is_mightier_than_the_sword_if_the_sword/195503.html

The pen is mightier than the sword if the sword is very short, and the pen is very sharp

and control the discourse on it, are the ones in control of the agenda.

Look no further than Republicans on the "deficit" debate. They've been allowed to set the agenda, so now, they are the ones in control of it. That's what happens when you let others frame the debate for you - you are eternally playing catch up.

But when people are so ignorant and cowed that they can no longer discern wise words from foolish ones, the power of the pen is diminished to practically nothing.

How else could the people be kept ignorant and cowed, as you put it, but by incessant bombardments with carefully chosen propaganda, misinformation, outright lies?

This quote might as well be from Murdoch, Ailes or any of their cohorts:

For example the Roman Empire is long gone, but the writings of Livy,Tactius,Marcus Aurelius, and Virgil are still being read to this day. Now what is really awesome is when you combine the pen and the sword such as The Art Of War or The Book of Five Rings.

you saved me the typing, thanks

+2 for naming 2 of my favorite books

short term can be exemplified as passenger 57 quote

From: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105104/quotes

Charles Rane: Who's in charge?
Captain Whitehurst: I am.

Charles Rane: Once again, who's in charge?
First Officer: You are.
Charles Rane: Excellent

----
long term, look at history, most of the 'short termers' are now gone

than the sword in some circumstances, but action always speaks louder than words.

Either way, some kind of action is a necessary result. Swords can yield brute force and defend. Words can inform a people of necessary revelations and call them to cause.

Doing is everything.

The idea is always first.

On the other hand if ideas, the spoken word, the pen, radio, television and the keyboard lead the actions or sword as I believe they always do, would you not be in less danger if they were benevolent and uplifting instead of promoting fear, division and hatred?

in the citizenry of the new United States, the words persevered over the arms of our oppressor -- so I am going to say yes!

Thanks for posting this, Uncle Joe.

Sam

Peace to you, Uncle Joe.:hi:

Power cedes nothing unless it's the best option.

Power cedes nothing if no one speaks against it or rouses the masses, nothing has changed since "Once upon a time" and those in power know it, that's why the carnival barkers are worried now.

For a while demonstrations may not seem to carry the same weight because the most powerful controllers of the pen do their best to distract the people or obfuscate the issues but that endeavor has a diminishing return.

Furthermore even when demonstrations seemed to matter, nothing happened overnight, it took years of persistence for the awakening to occur.

The stone (tool of many uses) came before both speech and the sword. A rat will always fight when cornered. The answer is to get the bastards to fear for their lives so we can lunge and pluck them from their perch while they are trying to remember how to think. Barring that, baffling them with B.S. while wait for something else to come up could be the next choice :think:



Our society with it's need for immediate results could be at fault, at any rate i will be waiting it out (doing what i can) till it gets resolved

The only reason a rat fights when cornered is because you're communicating danger to the rat.

It's all about communication; ie: body language, grunt, spoken word, written word, pen, radio, television, the Internet and who controls it.

If "power abhors a vacuum," then no or distorted communication creates a home for power to take hold.

If "power corrupts" and "absolute power corrupts absolutely" then non, distorted or monopolistic communication presents a grave danger.

than their intellectual capacity when they are operating off of their lizard brain, it's a survival trait. The problem would be of being trying control psychopathic tendencies of members of a cult with logic and reason. If you have known of such persons you would probably also would know they will often figure out ways to turn your efforts against you. The need to distract, or sidetrack or otherwise while the subject of aggression is diffused or ameliorated (well that's at least how it done in animal control and police enforcement).

The point is you are dealing with an ambitious thinking individual that might take any avenue to win, including laying down of aggression just so that attack can be performed latter when others are not ready for it. Which would coincide with where we are at now. The pen (or analogous of the idea)is only good if it is perceived (or actually)will work regardless of the others effort (IE. a court sentence). People with psychopathic tendencies often see control situations as place they would like to be and work to that point taking what ever shortcut they can to get there. To them, power to be in control of others is not a responsibility but more of tool to get more of what they want, they relish it. To that, their main focus it to get more power so no one can stop them from doing what they want. Simple arithmetic is to get them thinking or not thinking, however it might work out, sort of like the rat.

The tools are only as good as the operator, to think which is stronger, the pen or sword is to get into discussion of either-or which mostly already indicates a loss. I would use both along with many others as my choice

on edit: syntax

Yes and both can destroy nations

Before the 20th century, not everyone could read or write. Taking one's argument to the masses was often a matter of force. Nowadays, the "Fourth Estate" has more power than force, but only where there is an educated populace. Force is still the norm in places where a literate citizenry doesn't exist.

The word doesn't even need to be spoken to many people, although I believe it carries more power that way, it can be passed on in confidence to a targeted audience of just a few.

The idea of "the pen being more powerful than the sword" actually came about in one form or another dating back no later than the early 19th century as it was related to the Machiavellian actions of Cardinal Richelieu.

There seems to be other forms of the same thought dating back to at least the 16th century and unsubstantiated versions dating back to Ancient Greece, when the issues of the day were debated in open forum.

and forgive me my obtuseness at the moment. I did interpret it literally, but do realize that the "word" comes in many flavors. I can say, for example, that oral traditions have always fueled passion. The bible, for example, has managed to make believers of 25% of the world's populace, and enemies of the rest. For good or bad, it depends on your viewpoint. ;)

Still, speeches lead to war, and once again, the sword ends up being the weapon of choice.

This is why we must ensure that our children can write in cursive.

The keyboard doesn't spend 6 months moldering in some postal service warehouse being "checked for Anthrax" when you email your elected corporate whore.

Cause you can Die by the Sword.

:hi:

foundation

access. They listen to the people that they think have their best interest in mind and just follow what they say. Too busy working their ass off in an attempt to be rich, just like the assholes telling them what to do, which will never happen, not realizing they are slaves.