View Full Version : War on Ignorance
GeorgiaBoy
05-13-12, 19:17
Has anyone else, besides me, declared a "War on Ignorance" in some point of their lives?
With me I declared it during my senior year in high school. The things I would hear classmates say, especially in social studies classes, would blow me away. Just a general lack of knowledge on news, politics, history, government, and the world in general. These people weren't stupid, just ignorant of things I thought should be common knowledge. I had a few like minded friends with me. Not the majority though. I surprised me how many people with 3.5+ GPA's, going to great colleges, getting so many scholarships, could be so flat out unknowledgeable of the world. They were "school smart". They learned just to make good grades, not to actually "learn" what is being taught. I was the opposite.
Now as a junior in college studying Poly Sci, I still am baffled by the sheer ignorance that goes on, even among "educated" college students. (Probably has to due with their liberalness)
Anyone else?
All these people...is it that they're ignorant, or that they just don't agree with you?
GeorgiaBoy
05-13-12, 19:23
Far from "disagreement". I love to argue and have debates with people that disagree with me. These were/are people that flat out don't know anything about what they are talking about.
I don't understand "all these people". When did I say everyone I know is ignorant?
All these people...is it that they're ignorant, or that they just don't agree with you?
My experience is that it is a mixture of both. However, more often it is ignorance. I find more people who simply don't know the facts but have the same end desire. YMMV
Suwannee Tim
05-13-12, 19:44
I fought in the War Against Ignorance. We lost.
I'm like a Japanese WWII soldier on an abandoned island, still fighting a war that was lost long ago. :)
Seriously, every one of us will fall prey to ignorance at some point in our lives. The key is to accept that fact when someone smacks you in the face with it. You can be ignorant only until presented with the actual facts. If you stick to your guns after that, well, you're just stupid then. :(
I declared a War on Ignorance in my early youth but quickly realized I was hopelessly outnumbered and could never win.
I then simply tried to not associate with truly ignorant people. As a result I spend a lot of time with my dogs.
VooDoo6Actual
05-13-12, 23:07
insert witty quip here ________
LowSpeed_HighDrag
05-13-12, 23:08
I feel like I have to fight it here...
FChen17213
05-13-12, 23:09
I am sure most of us know by now that dogs make more sense and have 500 times more character than 99.99% of people out there. I think our furry friends have taught most of us what real love, real dedication, and what real character and commitment are. I don't think I would be in the minority either when I say that I am more heartbroken when I see a dog get hurt or a dog sad than a person get hurt.
I'm like a Japanese WWII soldier on an abandoned island, still fighting a war that was lost long ago. :)
Seriously, every one of us will fall prey to ignorance at some point in our lives. The key is to accept that fact when someone smacks you in the face with it. You can be ignorant only until presented with the actual facts. If you stick to your guns after that, well, you're just stupid then. :(
Yes. People should be humble enough to admit they've made a mistake. Nothing wrong with making mistakes; nothing to be embarrassed over. The embarrassing bit would be to cling to a falsehood instead of being honest with oneself.
When boiled down to irreducible complexity, I believe our problem is blurry facts. We would be in much better shape as a society if we all had the same facts, but disagreed about how to proceed with those facts. But we can't even get to that point. Even the facts are disagreeable. We'll never be able to move ahead if we can't nail down what reality is. Too many people fall for the "matrix"
So whoever is responsible for blurring the line between fictitious propaganda and realistic news is responsible for much of the ignorance epidemic.
The mass media? The government? Revisionist historians? All of the above? Someone is making a mud puddle out of the truth.
FromMyColdDeadHand
05-14-12, 00:02
I really think we are close to to winning the War on Stupid. I'm not kidding. People have always said "Can't fix stupid", but I think it is becoming more and more critical that we find a solution. As we become more and more linked together and as we remove waste and inefficencies out of systems, the trully slow are not just a drag on themselves, but also the system as a whole. We have smart phones that have everything man has ever learned a short google search or a wikipedia article away. We need to go beyond just recall of information to actual better decision making. I think it is already happening when you look at cars. High end ones now have gone beyond 'brake assist' to actual systems that put on the brakes, even before the driver knows they need it, to avoid accidents.
The fix for stupid is coming.
GeorgiaBoy
05-14-12, 00:07
The fix for stupid is coming.
It's important to differentiate ignorance form stupidity. If you are stupid, you're just plain stupid. If you ignorant, you either are oblivious to the truth, or you choose to ignore the truth and instead rely on your own beliefs.
I think it is already happening when you look at cars. High end ones now have gone beyond 'brake assist' to actual systems that put on the brakes, even before the driver knows they need it, to avoid accidents.
Just like calculators made people better at math? Technology can mask our incompetence and inadequacy, but can never cure it. In fact, tech can make it worse. Beware the push-button, instant gratification mentality. It will make us soft and lazy and dull, until we all resemble the people on the space ship in WALL-E.
I try to think like Chesty Puller on this one. "We're surrounded? Good, that simplifies the problem. We shoot in all directions!"
The fix for stupid is coming.
No, it isn't.
I've fought battles on ignorance time and time again. Cannot say I am waging a war against it since I am always more then willing to just let it go when people just clearly don't get something (more along the lines of stupid) or just refuse to unlearn something that it incorrect (ignorance).
I agree that part of it can be the passing on of bad information. If the wrong information is passed on or there is personal spin on something then it is more likely to be muddled. An example would be a dead man in the street in a pool of blood with a gun next to him, those are the facts but someone can say he was shot during a drive by when he really could have been stabbed and pulled a lawfully carried gun to try and defend himself, you don't know until you gather more facts beyond dead man in street in pool of blood with gun.
Then there is apathy, sometimes people just don't care and engage in ignorance. Ok if there really is no point to knowing something but not good if it actually is. Same with if something is to hard to handle they can engage in ignorance.
I think critical thinking is something that is dangerously low and that plays a lot into ignorance and being stupid. To many people not challenging assumptions.
Philosophy is close to dead. Even in M4C where there is a vast amount of good technical information and discussions there sure isn't much in the line of philosophical thought and discussion kind of the nature of the beast since historically it hasn't been cared for all that much.
Love the WALL-E concept. It does seem we are pushing in that direction where everything is more or less auto-pilot without doing anything.
I declared war on ignorance 4ys ago when I went into teaching. I have been fighting a losing war every day. Sadly many people have no idea how ignorant they really are b/c they eat up everything that the mass media outlets put out. No more independent research or questioning they just sit there and EXPECT people to tell them the truth. :(
I teach mostly seniors in high school so 17-18yr olds. I am not kidding when I say they have no concept of geography, politics, or individualism. On occasion there are one or two students that question the status quo. Those students are the ones I have hope for. They can think critically and creatively. I am by no means a luddite but technology has ruined the majority of our youth. Give them a computer and they can solve any problem as long as it has already been done and posted on WIKI.
:mad:
I feel like I have to fight it here...
No joke.....
I really think we are close to to winning the War on Stupid. I'm not kidding. People have always said "Can't fix stupid", but I think it is becoming more and more critical that we find a solution......... I think it is already happening when you look at cars. High end ones now have gone beyond 'brake assist' to actual systems that put on the brakes, even before the driver knows they need it, to avoid accidents.
The fix for stupid is coming.
Just like calculators made people better at math? Technology can mask our incompetence and inadequacy, but can never cure it. In fact, tech can make it worse. Beware the push-button, instant gratification mentality. It will make us soft and lazy and dull, until we all resemble the people on the space ship in WALL-E.
Agreed.
See, I'm young but I understand cars 30-40 years ago were more of a challenge to drive and keep on the road--I feel like that fact made a natural buffer against stupid people driving. But now that operating a car has become incredibly easy, it naturally enables more people to drive. This is a good and a bad thing.
Also, with all this new automated shit, I think some people will stop paying less attention to driving and road while they dick around on their tracking devices smartphones or something...
I have a feeling technology will do us in when we become overly dependent on electronic shit and it all goes down---just the way a weapon becomes useless if it goes down and one doesn't know failure drills, what is one to do?
Has anyone else, besides me, declared a "War on Ignorance" in some point of their lives?
With me I declared it during my senior year in high school. The things I would hear classmates say, especially in social studies classes, would blow me away. Just a general lack of knowledge on news, politics, history, government, and the world in general. These people weren't stupid, just ignorant of things I thought should be common knowledge. I had a few like minded friends with me. Not the majority though. I surprised me how many people with 3.5+ GPA's, going to great colleges, getting so many scholarships, could be so flat out unknowledgeable of the world. They were "school smart". They learned just to make good grades, not to actually "learn" what is being taught. I was the opposite.
Now as a junior in college studying Poly Sci, I still am baffled by the sheer ignorance that goes on, even among "educated" college students. (Probably has to due with their liberalness)
Anyone else?
I started early in the gifted program at school even though I felt like I didn't belong there. I came from a modest family and my father is a highly technical, practical, but knowledgeable person so I like to think he passed a lot of that on to me.
Senior year and I was told I was up against "the banker's" son for Valedictorian. I didn't study as much because some things just made sense to me but he studied furiously trying to beat me. One bitch of a teacher and his friends told me I couldn't do it. I wasn't that worried about it. He was good at test taking but I wasn't as fast. People like him were so fast to regurgitate what they were taught they could sit and take a test blindfolded and know which boxes to check.
I like to understand things so when I questioned or challenged a teacher, people looked at me like I was nuts and it pissed them off I wouldn't memorize and move on. So in a way I think high school was harder for me than stupid people and "smart" people. I had to make assignments and projects more challenging for them to be interesting to me and people thought I was just making a show.
After seeing how fast the other guy finished taking his finals, I was pretty sure he was going to beat me. I think I ended up beating him by a few tenths of a percent. He and his friends were crushed and kept saying dumb shit like "you aren't THAT much smarter, you barely beat him" lol
I didn't really think of it as a war on stupid so much as that's just how life is. It's a war you'll never win so why waste your time. The over-privileged think they're entitled to just as much as the underprivileged.
Stupid comes in all forms...blue collar/white collar, rich/poor etc but I wouldn't go so far as to characterize regurgitaters as stupid. They're smart enough to know that if they learn only the bare minimum to make an A and hold onto it for as short of a time as possible they can make it :)
You can only have one! You can't have both!
1) Ignorance
2) Common sense
IMHO: You won't find people with both.
Again: Just this old Fart's opinion.
Has anyone else, besides me, declared a "War on Ignorance" in some point of their lives?
With me I declared it during my senior year in high school. The things I would hear classmates say, especially in social studies classes, would blow me away. Just a general lack of knowledge on news, politics, history, government, and the world in general. These people weren't stupid, just ignorant of things I thought should be common knowledge. I had a few like minded friends with me. Not the majority though. I surprised me how many people with 3.5+ GPA's, going to great colleges, getting so many scholarships, could be so flat out unknowledgeable of the world. They were "school smart". They learned just to make good grades, not to actually "learn" what is being taught. I was the opposite.
Now as a junior in college studying Poly Sci, I still am baffled by the sheer ignorance that goes on, even among "educated" college students. (Probably has to due with their liberalness)
Anyone else?
Anyone can get an education. Intelligence is something you're born with.
montanadave
05-23-12, 09:02
Anyone can get an education. Intelligence is something you're born with.
I don't want to get caught up in the semantics of the issue (as different folks tend to assign different meanings to terms like intelligence, etc.), but it seems to me there are three legs to this stool. For an individual to be at the top of the game, they have to have the raw material to work with ("native intelligence" for lack of a better term), they have to acquire the skills or training to actualize that potential (critical thinking skills, hands-on experience, etc.), and they need to have the right data to work with when formulating judgements, decisions, etc. (which likely entails some formal education and research).
If any of these three are lacking, the results are going to prove suboptimal.
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