"The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword"

At face value, it's clear the pen isn't mightier than the sword. Maybe you could ride into battle with The Complete Works of Shakespeare to use as a sort of warhammer, but try it with Heart of Darkness then let me know how much of your face remains afterwards. And let us not forget that this blog post doesn't actually exist within this universe. You're peering through the black mirror into a digital world that cannot harm you unless you allow it to.

Has anyone ever ran screaming from the battlefield crying: "LOOK OUT, HE'S GOT A BOOK!! GOD HELP US ALL!! A BOOK!!"? Unless history has been heavily rewritten, then no. Brute force will always carry more impact than rhetoric since words leave no physical imprint unless you use a sort of book-canon that fires leather bound editions of Jane Austen.

Or so it seems.

If someone writes an article defaming you, you're perfectly entitled to take that Daily Mail journalist to court and sue his/her buttocks off. Yet no matter what you do, those words written by the pen will remain forever...or until people forget them...or until that wonderful day when the Daily Mail drowns in it's own bile.

In fact, for better or worse, censoring work will just make more people read it - because you've now made it have value. Why is it censored? What does it do that makes it worth recieving such backlash? Let's take a look, shall we?

The pen is, in fact, an entity that often seems above human comprehension - as though fine literature is dispensed through black holes into a parallel dimension where the world isn't so awful.

How many times has The Art Of War been mis-interpreted to be about war in the combat sense rather than war in the spiritual sense - the conflict of the mind rather than the conflict of hitting each-other with sharp objects. It's actually a discourse concerning the conflict of the mind and the quest for inner peace. A meditation on the meaning of life, the universe, everything. It's the Yoga Bible, not an instructional text on battlefield strategy.

Religion, I often argue, is entirely based on mis-interpretation. I regard any religious text as a discourse written by man that should be looked upon the same way I'd scrutinise anything else made by man. It's not that I don't think any god or spirit exists - it's just I don't trust mankind. Google "blessed are the cheesemakers" for better elaboration than I could ever provide.

But the religion remains because the texts remain. Utlimately, the pen remains whilst the sword rusts away to nothing. It may not always be as impactful as the sword, but it's longevity is what makes it superior. I suppose we'll keep to 'mightier than the sword' because it's quicker than "the pen is blunter but withstands the test of time better than the sword."