Ignorance.

[Lancer873]

I can appreciate a couple knowledge blanks now and then, but when it happens consistently or you claim to be an expert in the area, then it's downright awful.

 

[guntotingtomcat]

Why do we punish ignorance?
You know the scenario. You say "Sorry, where did the astronauts go?" or "Who got nuclear bombed in world war two?" or "Where does the Pope live?"
Basically, we have all been in the situation, or we know someone who has been in the situation, where there is a catastrophic common knowledge failure.
Every time I've seen this happen, people aren't just surprised, they're annoyed, to the point of being hostile. "How can you go through life and not know that!?" they say. "What is wrong with you!?", "Go read a book!" or "You're a retard!"
This peeves me. After all, we don't control what information we are exposed to in our lives. If we're ignorant, is it not the fault of our parents/teachers/circle of friends?
I would argue, though, as we live in a democracy (most of us) that we have a responsibility to make ourselves as intelligent as possible, to the best of our ability. If the population is smart, they'll probably pick the best leader. If the population is not so smart, they'll merely pick the most charismatic leader.
Surely we are allowed to not know the odd commonly known fact, however. For me, I didn't know that Britney Spears was American. And I can't name a single Rolling Stones song.

Anyway, I have two questions for you, to answer at your leisure.
1. Have you ever found yourself completely ignorant of some fact everyone else knows?
2. What is your view of ignorance and responsibility?

EDIT: I mean ignorance to mean 'not knowing something', not 'ignoring the facts'. That may not be the correct definition, so for that, soz. Ironic error, considering the subject.

You're mistaking ignorance for obliviousness, though perhaps your point is moreso that other people seem to.

Ignorance is something a person does actively, chooses to neglect/ignore something because its inconvinient to their way of thinking, hence racists are often considered ignorant.

PS: I hear ignorance is your new best friend.

(song reference, not implying anything by that. =])

Yeah, this has kind of been discussed. Glance at some of the other threads. No, that wasn't a clever point I was trying to make. To be honest, I think I may have got it wrong, though others disagree. Take it up with them.

 

[Kurokami]

Why do we punish ignorance?
You know the scenario. You say "Sorry, where did the astronauts go?" or "Who got nuclear bombed in world war two?" or "Where does the Pope live?"
Basically, we have all been in the situation, or we know someone who has been in the situation, where there is a catastrophic common knowledge failure.
Every time I've seen this happen, people aren't just surprised, they're annoyed, to the point of being hostile. "How can you go through life and not know that!?" they say. "What is wrong with you!?", "Go read a book!" or "You're a retard!"
This peeves me. After all, we don't control what information we are exposed to in our lives. If we're ignorant, is it not the fault of our parents/teachers/circle of friends?
I would argue, though, as we live in a democracy (most of us) that we have a responsibility to make ourselves as intelligent as possible, to the best of our ability. If the population is smart, they'll probably pick the best leader. If the population is not so smart, they'll merely pick the most charismatic leader.
Surely we are allowed to not know the odd commonly known fact, however. For me, I didn't know that Britney Spears was American. And I can't name a single Rolling Stones song.

Anyway, I have two questions for you, to answer at your leisure.
1. Have you ever found yourself completely ignorant of some fact everyone else knows?
2. What is your view of ignorance and responsibility?

EDIT: I mean ignorance to mean 'not knowing something', not 'ignoring the facts'. That may not be the correct definition, so for that, soz. Ironic error, considering the subject.

You're mistaking ignorance for obliviousness, though perhaps your point is moreso that other people seem to.

Ignorance is something a person does actively, chooses to neglect/ignore something because its inconvinient to their way of thinking, hence racists are often considered ignorant.

PS: I hear ignorance is your new best friend.

(song reference, not implying anything by that. =])

Yeah, this has kind of been discussed. Glance at some of the other threads. No, that wasn't a clever point I was trying to make. To be honest, I think I may have got it wrong, though others disagree. Take it up with them.

I don't really take much issue with your point, when people are oblivious to common knowledge they are considered morons, even if they might know a whole lot more then others about different topics. I knew a girl in my school who once asked in geography whether France was in Asia, another thought Japan was the capital of Korea (or something of the sort) and so on, I hear these things and it makes me think they are retarded, yet they could very easily be very bright people who've simply not been exposed to the same information as most, so is it really right to judge people based on that?

(that's what I took from your post, feel free to correct me if it's not at all what you meant)

 

[ZydrateDealer]

If someone isn't mentally challenged, but doesn't know where The Pope lives, they deserve to be mocked.

Why the Pope shouldn't be THAT important, it's like me yelling at my girlfriend because she doesn't know what DNA stands for...it's not important to her line of work...equally she doesn't yell at me because I don't know what a PLC is.

If you should have been taught it then it's their techer's fault, but never mock those who are trying to learn.

 

[loc978]

I draw a very fine line between ignorance and willful ignorance. Nothing wrong with lacking knowledge, so long as you would prefer to have that knowledge.

 

[Choppaduel]

2. What is your view of ignorance and responsibility?

Igorance is ignoring reality. Theres empirical evidence & reason for(against) X, but I don't(do) believe X.

Responsiblity, in this case, is your duty to further your understanding of the universe.

OP I think you may be mixing terms. Ignorance is quite different from inexperience.

this is untrue. Ignorance is not knowing something. That's it.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ignorance

YOU are mixing terms.

what term am I mixing it with?

 

[Hazard09]

I didn't know the difference between the terms cousin and neice so I asked my sister for the definition. I should've just went online as usual because she screamed in my face about it.

 

[Aurora Firestorm]

burntheartist, I'd be worried to be near you in real life. If I happened not to have learned something in history class, you might punch me in the back of the head. Do you really think that educating people by violence will actually get anything done other than having everyone be pissed off at you? You'd get your ass kicked the first time you picked on someone who actually knew some self-defense.

On a less vitriolic note, the reason I think people get so pissed off about ignorance is because it's so easy to obtain information these days. I don't like it either, but most people would rather you Googled something than asked them the question -- I guess they see it as wasted breath or something. Whenever I don't know something, people deliberately don't answer me, and direct me to Google.

So the undercurrent is, if you don't know something, you should. Go look it up on Google. It's cake to obtain information now, and thus it is perceived that there is no excuse for not knowing something.

 

[sageoftruth]

For most of my childhood, I knew nothing about music. I thought New Kids on the Block was a group of new members in the neighborhood.

Anyway, I think the acceptability of one's ignorance depends on how active one wants to be in whatever they're ignorant about.
Jack Thompson wants to leave a permanent mark in the gaming industry and yet he knows next to nothing about the games he bashes.
Conversely, the Amish are pretty ignorant about the world around them, but everybody loves them because they only concern themselves with their inner community and have a live-and-let-live approach to the rest of the world.
Bottom line: If you want to change or impact something, take the time to learn about it.

 

[sageoftruth]

Hmmm. My post never showed up. Anyway, my moment of ignorance was with music in elementary school. I thought people discussing New Kids on the Block were acutally talking about some new people that moved into the neighborhood.

My stance on ignorance is that it depends on what you intend to do with your limited knowledge.
For example: Jack Thompson is reviled by everyone on this forum, because he intends to leave a permanent mark in gaming, and yet he knows next to nothing about the games he bashes.
On the other hand, the amish know very little about the world outside the community. However, since they tend to had a live-and-let-live approach to the world outside their community, everyone still loves them.
My bottom line is, if you want to get directly involved in something, take the time to learn about it.

 

[sageoftruth]

Oh! Noooow my post shows up. Such a pain when this happens.

 

[Hashime]

I, as someone with an extreme amount of knowledge about the most random topics in my head, am perpetually annoyed by this. In most circumstances I will not hold it against a person though. Unless they don't know something they should know from lower education or picking up a newspaper sometime in the last decade.
I am guilty of knowing nothing about music, celebrities, and teen dramas. Then again I am not sure that is a bad thing.

 

[realslimshadowen]

I draw a very fine line between ignorance and willful ignorance. Nothing wrong with lacking knowledge, so long as you would prefer to have that knowledge.

Came here to say this. Everyone is ignorant of the majority of knowledge in the world, but it's not that most people don't care; it's that they have, whaddaya call it, shit to do. But if given the opportunity, I don't doubt most people soak up any kind of knowledge they can find in their situation.

The people who don't will pay, oh yes...

oh shit did i just type that