IGNORANCE

In one of my last writings, I talked about hatred and quoted a famous saying by the famous Averroes: "Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to hatred and hatred leads to violence".

Who among us would like to be associated with this rather negative word? And yet, throughout our lives, we find ourselves in situations where we have to deal with ignorant people. The unfortunate thing is that they don't know that they are ignorant.

To be more explicit, I'm going to give this word a few synonyms to make it easier to understand.

They are a moron, an illiterate, a fool, a blind, a stupid, an idiotic and so on.

The ignorant person doesn't want to learn from others, he knows everything. He's always saying I know, I know, even though he doesn't know. What could be more dangerous than ignorance? The Chinese are right to say that ignorance is the night of the mind, and this night has neither moon nor stars. One of their proverbs tells us that "Knowing your ignorance is the best part of knowledge".

Pythagoras included ignorance among the five things to fight against. The other four being disease, bodily passions, civil wars and family quarrels.

These days, I've been raising this subject around me, and I've been distressed to learn that, according to the answer I've been given, the majority of people are ignorant and don't understand the danger that ignorance represents. How can we find a remedy?

Psychoanalysis? According to Lacan, it's a remedy for ignorance, but it has no effect on bullshit. If ignorance is a fault, according to Milan Kundera, then each and every one of us is responsible. The JaponUs proverb has a good word for it: He who confesses his ignorance shows it once, he who tries to hide it shows it many times.

We are conscious, and Pythagoras recommends that we face four problems in our world: disease, the passions of the body, wars and misunderstanding in the family. Should we add ignorance to these?

What's more dangerous than ignorance? Albert Einstein claims it's arrogance. A certain Jacques Sternberg once said: "Ignorance and arrogance not only rhyme, they often go hand in hand. I don't know whether I should agree with Charles Darwin, for whom ignorance more often engenders confidence than knowledge. According to him, the ignorant would not have so much knowledge. The Chinese proverb, on the other hand, has the answer: "Knowing your ignorance is the best part of knowledge".
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What's more dangerous than ignorance? Albert Einstein claims it's arrogance. A certain Jacques Sternberg once said: "Ignorance and arrogance not only rhyme, they often go hand in hand. I don't know whether I should agree with Charles Darwin, for whom ignorance more often engenders confidence than knowledge. According to him, the ignorant would not have so much knowledge. The Chinese proverb has the answer: "Knowing your ignorance is the best part of knowledge".
and arrogance don't just rhyme, they often go hand in hand: "Knowing your ignorance is the best part of knowledge".
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What's more dangerous than ignorance? Albert Einstein claims it's arrogance. A certain Jacques Sternberg once said: "Ignorance and arrogance not only rhyme, they often go hand in hand. I don't know whether I should agree with Charles Darwin, for whom ignorance more often engenders confidence than knowledge. According to him, the ignorant would not have so much knowledge. The Chinese proverb, on the other hand, has the answer: "Knowing your ignorance is the best part of knowledge".

I wonder why Plato said that opinion is something intermediate between knowledge and ignorance. Does this mean that the ignorant have no opinion?

Many have tried to find a cost to ignorance. Ray Kroc, the inventor of Mc Donald's, said it best: "If you think training is expensive, think of the cost of ignorance. That's very well put.

I'd like to add to François Rabelais' words, "Ignorance is the mother of all evils". Speaking of mothers, Balzac thought that ignorance was the mother of all crimes. For him, a crime is above all a lack of reasoning.

Another remark to add to ignorance: add to it stupidity and cowardice, and the three of them become the three most formidable enemies of the human race. In the course of history, wasn't it ignorance and submission that caused the downfall of so many civilizations? 

To conclude, I'd like to quote the Dalai Lama:
 "Never mistake my silence for ignorance, my calm for acceptance or my kindness for weakness. Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but of strength.