“[General literacy would] teach [the poor] to despise their lot in life, instead of making them good servants in agriculture, and other laborious employment to which their rank in society has destined them;… it would enable them to read seditious pamphlets, vicious books, and publications against Christianity; it would render them insolent.”

—  Joseph Banks

John Oxenham: 'Literacy. Writing, Reading and Social Organisation'. As quoted in 'The Writing Systems of the World' by Florian Coulmas p. 6

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