The Igno-rant

Caution! Upcoming rant on: Ignorance.

"Ignorance: The condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed."
-Dictionary.com

Knowledge is so overrated. Socrates, the most knowledgeable person of, possibly, all time died to his peers for knowing too much. If the most knowledgeable person in history can't get away with being well-educated, then why should we? We don't live in a society of persecution for our intelligence; we live in a society that embraces it.

It is true that all of the populus today is ignorant to one topic or another. I am ignorant to Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Corellation Spectroscopy, upon other topics. However, I will not be debating with someone about NMRCS in the near future, and if I was to be arguing its validity or something like that, I'll do research first. I don't want to be messing up NMRCS for everyone, now would I?

I also believe there is a difference in what you are ignorant to. If you're ignorant to something prominent in Canadian life, like the fact that cars drive on the right-hand side of the road, there could be very serious consequences for your actions.

Obviously these are extreme examples, however, let me give you a real one:

My mom, a wonderful happy woman, is Ukranian. Ukranians always believe they are right, no matter what. So, in theory, my mom could argue to my cat about why the television will not turn on. Please keep this in mind, as well as the fact that my cat is deaf.

When I decided to go to school this year, I needed to get a bank loan. Through research, I found out that student lines of credit, a wondrous innovation, were available. I could withdraw the money I need, and only pay back that amount once I am done school in easy and manageable payments (I sound like an ING Direct commercial). My mom, who had nothing to do with this loan, decides one day to lecture me on how much my loans will be. I understand that loans will grow, but since the payments will always be the same size when I exit post-secondary, it initially does not matter, and will not throw me into bankruptcy. However, because my mom truly believed she knew all there was to know about loans and banks, I was wrong. The argument was never resolved, because her ignorance acted like a thirty-foot wall in the middle of a foot race.

My mom, as well as the Ukranians, are not the only ones who acts this way. The Canadian population has become, for the most part, a group of people who do not enjoy knowledge. I would like someone to tell me why it is a bad idea to have more knowledge. Maybe those IQ scores will go up; that would be a shame. Maybe you'll win a game of Trivial Pursuit; that would be so embarassing. Maybe you'll win a debate because you were properly educated to back up your otherwise unfounded opinion; just terrible.

Where do unfounded opinions come from? For example, why are people still racist today? Is it because when you were little, your grandfather told you that black people were dumb and should not have came to this country? What backing did he have? Why defend something which you don't really know why you're defending, except for the fact that it's popped up in your brain one day?

If you believe this is targeted at you, it is. Ignorance is a blemish on the surface of the population, and will turn into a cancer if we are not careful. In time, we may have a lot more people similar to my cat: deaf to the world. Deafness to the truth and what is right leads to conflict and pain.

I want you to ask yourself two questions today:

"What do I know?" & "Why don't I know more?"

--Jam