Embrace Your Ignorance

Ignorance is a word often used pejoratively as a broad-brush approach to paint individuals, groups and entire races, with misidentification, mistrust and disenfranchisement. Even today, it is used as a negative term to indicate stupidity, mindlessness and imbecilic. Yet, it means none of those things.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, ignorance is defined as a lack of knowledge, understanding or education: the state of being ignorant.

In other words, ignorance has little to do with intelligence. It is the state of being unaware or not cognizant of a multitude of circumstances, situations and events. Although often used to denigrate others, ignorance is little appreciated as a means to acquiring knowledge. Too often, ignorance is hidden behind minds thirsting for knowledge. The masquerade is an empty façade that is easily revealed in the company of the next least ignorant man or women.

Sadly, the benefits of ignorance are given short shrift because of the negativity associated with it. Instead of embracing ignorance and embracing it for just what it shake its hand and recognize it for what it is—lack of knowledge. Many pretend to all knowledge without embracing their own ignorance. A person recognizing their own ignorance already has head start in finding knowledge and erasing a portion of ignorance because of their openness and readiness to gain knowledge.

Ignorance is what brings breakthroughs in science, medicine, agriculture and many other fields. If not for ignorance and the desire to end it, today would be an empty ball of confusion where the one-eyed man would rule the kingdom of the blind. Interesting, as deeply as man and women have strived to end it, they have found that ignorance is an on-going event that continually leads to the discovery of more areas of ignorance. It is the discovery of one’s ignorance that sparks the desire to know.

Stupid as defined the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: lacking intelligence or common sense. Self-imposed ignorance

“Stupid is as stupid does.” Forest Gump

However, not all ignorance is beneficial. Self-imposed ignorance is of a type where subjects refuse to accept reality or understand answers, as with racists, homophobes, history revisionists and religionists. It is not that the data are wrong; it is the unwillingness to cede fact to fiction.

Ignorance is never to be confused with stupid, idiotic, dimwitted, moronic, imbecilic, dimwitted, dumb, half-witted, lame brained, daft, simpleminded and a host of other description who are truly are unable to think past primordial need.

Huge masses are ignorant of astrophysics. However, the number of astrophysicist on-chip programming is small. Producing a recording requires knowledge that few have. On the other hand, playing a musical instrument is an area of ignorance to most. What are the most prominent ocean currents? Surely, most would be ignorant of the answer. Even the most learned have gaping holes of ignorance, but it is that ignorance that brought fire and the wheel into civilization.

Embrace Your Ignorance