Own Your Ignorance

The word ignorant is a trigger word for many. Upon being called ignorant, there are those among us that will react as if our lives are being threatened and act in a manner powered with the biological imperative as if we must stave off the attack. This is more in response to the tone associated with being called ignorant as it has evolved to be more of a put down than anything. The purpose of this writing is simply to show that we are all ignorant. Ignorant, by definition, is lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified. I fancy myself a learned man but there are far more things I am ignorant about than I am knowledgeable about. Hence, this makes me ignorant by definition. My point is not to embrace ignorance and to invoke it our narrative but to simply acknowledge that we know far less than we do, particularly those things we believe we are knowledgeable about. This creates and fosters a mindset of learning and exploration. Life is both amazingly complex and simple. Our minds are both genius and idiotic. The bridges that make up for these vast differences is in one’s pursuit of knowledge. No one person can be knowledgeable or have expertise on everything. Even if one is an ‘expert’ on something, (which is rare for 99% of the general population) it stands to reason that this person will be wholly ignorant on a great many other things because there just is not enough time one can dedicate to being an expert on one thing and necessarily knowledgeable on other things. Most people are clueless about how the things they use everyday operate. The coffee maker, juicer, toilet seat, glue, changing windshield wiper blades, the internal combustion engine, are things that if I asked you to explain in detail their structure and function, most of you would run to Google and still be clueless about their operation. But many of these same individuals would gladly give advice on economics, politics, love, or weight loss. (Some of the most complex things floating around in our society) There is nothing is wrong in admitting you are ignorant about something. This, contrary to how it feels, does not make you an ignorant person. This opens the gates for you to acquire the knowledge you lack about that thing. The brain craves this and produces chemical and electrical changes to enhance the absorption of new information when you are in this state. This is called learning. Humans are a social species, the most social of all social species, and the biggest perk we have is that we have access to an infinite amount of knowledge. The knowledge rests in other people’s minds (which we can access in conversation or in books), in the environment, we are all literally dripping in knowledge but most of us just towel it off never having it penetrate. There is only one way to improve and grow and that is to openly and enthusiastically seek knowledge but in order to do this we have to acknowledge our ignorance. Only then can you start to work out of this state we all operate in.