Claiming Our Ignorance

We have become pretty lazy with our words in the last couple of years.  We throw them around without putting much energy into choosing them.  We snarl them out at those with whom we disagree.  We look down our nose with them at people we believe are of lesser stuff than ourselves.  We sling them around like a sword hoping to wound and defeat our enemy.  We misuse perfectly good words as rhetorical flourishes intended to overwhelm others.  In the process we forget that words do have a precise meaning and should be respected or else OUR word itself will lose respect among our hearers.

For example, it has become common to accuse someone of being ignorant.  It is intended to communicate that the other person is stupid, meaning that they are simple-minded, foolish, or dull witted.  But ignorant has a very different meaning.  Ignorance is not intended to be an insult, it is a simple statement of fact.  It means a person lacks knowledge – is unaware of or unacquainted with some information.

To say we are ignorant is to acknowledge that our understanding and perspective is incomplete.  We may be ignorant of the facts or new data.  We may be ignorant of how others see or feel about something.  We can be ignorant of many, many things and not be simple-minded or dull witted.  Ignorance is not a permanent state.  We can learn.  The ignorant have either chosen not to learn or have not had the opportunity to do so, yet!  We are all ignorant.  But, there is no shame in ignorance, as long as it is not due to our choosing to be ignorant.

However, ignorance can only be overcome by learning what we do not know.  Unfortunately, that requires a self-awareness that can be very, very difficult to acquire.  Ignorance can lead us to a similar word, ignore.  The ignorant may ignore the emptiness in their thinking, the holes in their reasoning, the missing pieces in the puzzles of life.  To be blissfully ignorant is to disregard or ignore all the unknowns around us.  We can dismiss them as pie-in-the-sky or outside of what we may call “common sense.”  We may look at the mysteries around us and say they have nothing to do with “real life.”  We can shunt them off to others while we concentrate on “the real world.”  We have a number of ways to justify a lack of self-awareness and our own resulting ignorance.  In doing so we choose our ignorance.

Fortunately, ignorance can be corrected by another misused word, intelligence.  This is not a compliment, it is a statement of fact relating to the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.  It is the opposite of dull witted or simple minded.  It is driven by an equally powerful word, curiosity, the strong desire to know or learn.  Employing both intelligence and curiosity results in a third powerful word, wisdom, the quality of having experience, knowledge and good judgment.  Almost everyone is capable of intelligence, curiosity, and wisdom in varying degrees.

The French called this sapience which is rooted in the more ancient word meaning to taste or to perceive.  Overcoming ignorance is a rather simple process of tasting life.  It means we keep ourselves open to and seeing what it has to offer.  Scientists have named our species Homo Sapiens, the thinking human.  Our most evident characteristic is our ability to acquire wisdom, to think.   When we recognize our ignorance, we are driven by our curiosity to acquire wisdom.  This is what it means to be human!  We seek to live beyond ignorance!  And we have the ability to be self-aware enough to be able to do so, body-mind-soul.

There are a few people who do not have that capacity for intelligence.  They cannot follow simple cause and effect relationships.  They are unable to remember or process instructions or frame goals.  These people are unable to learn and grow.  I have met very, very few of these people.  They are generally suffering from a disease like advanced dementia or have suffered some form of brain injury. 

However, I have met quite a few people who, through their lack of self-awareness, are totally unaware of their lack of knowledge.  These folks are lazy, turning away from what it means to be a human being, a Homo Sapiens.  In short, “They can’t be bothered with thinking.”  They prefer to be ignorant and have chosen that path as a lifestyle.

I believe that a little self-awareness would go a long way toward healing many of the wounds and divisions in our culture.  If more folks could respond with an honest, “I don’t know!” rather than some rote recitation of their favorite news anchor, we might actually begin to make some progress.  If more of us were more curious and less convinced, we might actually be able to have honest discussions about things that really matter.  If we sought wisdom rather than being right, we might actually develop the capacity to listen and empathize with those with whom we disagree.  It could all happen very easily with a bit more honest ignorance in our lives. 

“Being ignorant is not so much a shame,

as being unwilling to learn.”  ~Benjamin Franklin

Peace,

Bob