If you had the Skill or the Wit, would you use it?

[n00854180t]

The flip side of this discussion is the question of who should be allowed to possess the Skill or the Wit.

With regard to the Skill, individuals don't seem to develop their abilities to any great extent without training. This allowed the Kings of the Six Duchies to restrict Skill training to themselves and their loyal coteries. This is understandable given the threat to the monarchy and the kingdom posed by rogue skill users. However, it also led to the near extinction of the Skill during Shrewd's reign. Can the complete suppression of knowledge ever be justified on the grounds of national security?

With regard to the Wit, even untrained individuals seem to develop their abilities to a certain extent. Indeed, attempts to suppress the abilities of the witted (such as Burrich's attempt to suppress the Wit in Fitz, Swift and himself) appear to be unsuccessful. This means that the only way to restrict the Wit is to kill the witted. I imagine that most people will agree with me that genocide cannot be justified on the grounds of national security, but that leaves the problem of how a society copes with people who spontaneously develop powerful supernatural abilities.

I personally don't think the Wit could be reasonably said to be a threat to national security in general, at least, not on the magnitude that even a single trained Skill user could be (speaking mainly of untrained Wit users, though, and trained it could be quite powerful). However, I also doubt that most Wit users would even be inclined toward espionage, if the general population/monarchy were not already against their existence.

As to the original question I think I'd prefer to be a solo Skill user, and would almost certainly use it to excess, and go off to Jhaampe-town in my old age to lose myself in the Skill-river and/or try to carve a Skill-dragon.