As knowledge is collectively built and communally shared, learning is not passive but participatory and its most characteristic expression is in colloquy rather than deference. “What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer” (Hannah Arendt).