"Knowledge is power. Information is power. The secreting or hoarding of knowledge or information may be an act of tyranny camouflaged as humility"
About this Quote
Morgan’s line is a pressure test for one of modern culture’s favorite alibis: “I’m just not the expert.” By stacking “knowledge” and “information,” she collapses the cozy distinction between high-minded understanding and raw data. Both circulate as currency. Both decide who gets believed, who gets funded, who gets protected, who gets to speak without being fact-checked to death.
The clever turn is the last clause: tyranny “camouflaged as humility.” Morgan is naming a familiar move in institutions and movements alike. Gatekeepers don’t always posture as bullies; they often perform restraint. They withhold documents “to avoid confusion,” keep strategies “to protect the cause,” or bury expertise behind credentials “so we don’t mislead anyone.” The subtext is feminist and organizing-savvy: power rarely announces itself as power. It dresses up as propriety, professionalism, even care.
Context matters. Morgan comes out of second-wave feminism, where consciousness-raising treated experience as a form of knowledge and where control of information (about bodies, labor, violence, reproduction) mapped directly onto control of lives. Read now, the quote feels almost engineered for the platform age: corporations call their secrecy “privacy,” governments call it “security,” managers call it “need-to-know,” and online communities call it “keeping things from drama.” Morgan’s challenge is blunt: if your silence preserves hierarchy, it isn’t modesty. It’s governance. And governance without accountability is the oldest tyranny there is.
The clever turn is the last clause: tyranny “camouflaged as humility.” Morgan is naming a familiar move in institutions and movements alike. Gatekeepers don’t always posture as bullies; they often perform restraint. They withhold documents “to avoid confusion,” keep strategies “to protect the cause,” or bury expertise behind credentials “so we don’t mislead anyone.” The subtext is feminist and organizing-savvy: power rarely announces itself as power. It dresses up as propriety, professionalism, even care.
Context matters. Morgan comes out of second-wave feminism, where consciousness-raising treated experience as a form of knowledge and where control of information (about bodies, labor, violence, reproduction) mapped directly onto control of lives. Read now, the quote feels almost engineered for the platform age: corporations call their secrecy “privacy,” governments call it “security,” managers call it “need-to-know,” and online communities call it “keeping things from drama.” Morgan’s challenge is blunt: if your silence preserves hierarchy, it isn’t modesty. It’s governance. And governance without accountability is the oldest tyranny there is.
Quote Details
| Topic | Knowledge |
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