I believe that the search for knowledge is vilified because it could be perceived as a lack of trust in people of power. In most cases, there is information that is not available to the public for various reasons. People in power may choose to keep some information classified for safety reasons or because revealing the information may have a negative impact. While the reason for keeping this information secret may be for our own good, it is difficult for members of the public to trust that our leaders are not keeping information from us out of greed, or other negative reasons.
