Periagoge
Concept
1 min read

The Vow Against Ignorance

A deliberate commitment to resist enforced ignorance as a form of oppression, positioning knowledge-seeking as an act of liberation and resistance.

Juana
Why It Matters

Sor Juana took vows to religious life but refused vows of intellectual subordination, famously cutting her hair in protest of forced silence. Her life embodies a counter-vow: to never accept imposed ignorance as legitimate authority. For civil disobedience traditions, this concept frames refusal to participate in systems that require deliberate blindness—whether to injustice, environmental destruction, or historical truth. It dignifies the whistleblower, the investigative journalist, and the truth-teller as engaged in sacred resistance. The vow against ignorance suggests that some acts of disobedience are not rebellious but rather prophetic: they insist on seeing what power demands remain hidden, and they treat knowledge as a human right worth defending at great personal cost.

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Juana
Identity & Justice
Peri
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