Knowledge Is The Key To Success

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Knowledge is the Key to Success

In my opinion, I believe that Arnold Toynbee and Edward Said both supported each other in their essays. In Toynbee’s essay, he explained how certain societies and individuals excelled in their environments when they applied their newfound knowledge to their lives. He then explained how societies might falter if they do not learn from tragedies and mistakes. Edward Said explained similar situations for people who were exiled from their home countries or cities. If the exiled person did not learn how to live and grow in their new environment, then they would lead a life full of misery and heartache.
One of the examples that Toynbee used was the one about Adam and Eve. He explained how God forced Adam and Eve to leave the only existence they had ever known, and began a new life in a new land. They did not know anything about the world outside the Garden of Eden, so they had to learn as they went. Instead of giving up and dying, they taught themselves how to survive. They learned how to get food, reproduce and create a successful society.
Said also explained something similar to this. He included the writings of a monk that said strong men are the ones who learn how to love several different soils, not just the ones they were born on. In other words, people who only stay in one place all of their lives are going to be week when it comes to making it through hardships and things of that nature, while people who explore different cultures and environments will be able to cope with changes better.
Another example from Toynbee’s essay was from the part in which he included a passage written by Ellsworth Huntington. Huntington told a story of a group of savages that left their perfect, tropical land to explore a different region. Several things happened to these bands. Some of them died, some of them returned home, and some of them learned to adapt to their new surrounding, thus creating...