Hopefully most of you know what ignorance is. Ignorance, quite simply, is the state of not knowing something. Its a common thing today, even thought this is supposedly the Information Age. And by itself, Ignorance is not a sin. As long as you are willing to get informed about whatever you don't know, then there's nothing wrong with it.
But a lot of the time you don't bother to get informed. Maybe you don't have the time, or the interest to research whatever it is you're ignorant about. Maybe you think that knowing about whatever it is is pointless or wrong. That is Willful Ignorance, the next contestant in our tour of humanities failings.
As with so many of the things that are wrong with people, the best place to showcase Willful Ignorance is in politics. In America, it is a commonly held belief that politicians are liars and bastards. Many Americans will agree with you if you say this to them. But how many of you bother to look up what politicians to say, to actually catch them in the lies? Not many. A lot of Americans neglect to research candidates before election day. No, instead of hitting the internet and seeing where our duly elected representatives stand, you watch them on TV and go off of that. You take their word at face value, these people who are generally assumed to be liars. What's worse, many people don't even bother to watch the news. A lot of you don't even bother with or know anything about politics.
For example, a poll done in 2010 shows that less than 60 percent of Americans are informed about politics. That may not sound to bad for some of you, since hey ,it's more than 50 percent. But this is a country based upon the people's involvement and knowledge of the political process. For our country to work, citizens have to know about what's going on in politics.
Along the same lines, a series of studies done in 1996 revealed that 4 in 10 Americans didn't know who the Vice President was. 46 percent didn't know the name of the Speaker of the House. Saddest of all, nearly half weren't aware that the Supreme Court is responsible for judging whether a law is constitutional or not. With the existence of the Internet, there is no excuse for being ignorant. It just takes a little work.
But you aren't prepared to put in that time, are you? You just absorb the lies and move on. In a time where information is no farther away than you're cell phone, you can't be bothered. The same holds true with what you're reading right now. Are you going to bother researching anything I've said, are you going to check the examples or the facts I've used to support my ideas? Probably not, because that would require a little bit of work and the use of higher brain functions.
Awesome.
I feel like I lost a little of the Hate in the this one. Need to get the rage back up.
Dr. James Semaj
Off to read Transmetropolitan
I dunno. I think it's just more subtle. I like it.
QuoteI dunno. I think it's just more subtle. I like it.
What I'm trying for here isn't subtle. My aim is to get in the reader's face, to get them good and pissed off. I want the bastards to feel it.
Quote from: Dr. James Semaj on April 04, 2011, 03:24:35 AM
QuoteI dunno. I think it's just more subtle. I like it.
What I'm trying for here isn't subtle. My aim is to get in the reader's face, to get them good and pissed off. I want the bastards to feel it.
Oh Semaj, you don't have to be in their face to get them pissed. I prefer the little venomous barbs that leave them with a gnawing sort of feeling.
QuoteOh Semaj, you don't have to be in their face to get them pissed. I prefer the little venomous barbs that leave them with a gnawing sort of feeling.
This is hopefully going to be straight up, ranting hate. This article and the project it's part of is the culmination of a fair bit of thought and work. I want them to get a nice unvarnished view the truth. Can't be subtle.
Quote from: Dr. James Semaj on April 04, 2011, 03:34:40 AM
QuoteOh Semaj, you don't have to be in their face to get them pissed. I prefer the little venomous barbs that leave them with a gnawing sort of feeling.
This is hopefully going to be straight up, ranting hate. This article and the project it's part of is the culmination of a fair bit of thought and work. I want them to get a nice unvarnished view the truth. Can't be subtle.
Well, it's your project. If you don't want to be subtle, don't be. :)
Kick in a bit about people choosing to listen only to news and opinions which echo their own ideas, to reinforce their own ignorance?