I'd like to take a moment to talk about ignorance.
There are several kinds of ignorance, and they are all bad, really, but some can't be helped. For instance, I was ignorant of the fact that I had some guy named Dimitri following my blogs. Mainly because I never check my comments because I don't ever expect anyone to read these things. But I did happen to be checking my list of posts to see where I was and I noticed his comments, so, HI Dimitri! No, I am not "the gay," but hey thanks for asking. Yes I do love sci fi and the Aliens vs predator movies are pretty decent. I find it confusing to think that my review of transformers, revenge of the fallen that says it's actually not bad would somehow define my sexual preferences, but hey! I admit the movie wasn't exceptional, just filled with giant robots and lots of action and honestly, how much more can you expect of transformers movies? It met my expectations, that's all I can say. Feel free to respond to my blogs again and we'll talk sci fi movies until we can't stand each other's opinions and vow to never speak again.
Now this form of ignorance, where you just don't know something, happens all the time, can't be helped and is the least offensive form of ignorance. Note how, once I discovered I actually did indeed have followers who commented, I tried to respond to them. Thus I recognized that I was, in fact, ignorant, and tried to make up for my ignorance. See how that works?
There's another kind of ignorance that I myself have demonstrated. Stubborn ignorance can be a pain in the ass, but honestly, sometimes the knowledge that pokes it's hairy, gruesome light into your ignorance can be world-shattering, and confuse the very ground you walk on, which can make one extremely reluctant to let it go. I had been taught, when I was a wee little man, to spell correctly. I've even won spelling bees. So when I was doing a crossword puzzle with a friend some months back, and the word we were looking for was Dilemma, I said "HAH! they even spelled it wrong!" And my friend, who is not a native english speaker, said "What?" To which I proceeded to spell it Dilemna. And he said "uh, that's not how you spell Dilemma." and I said "Yea it is, go look it up." So convincing was i in my ignorance, that yes, he did go look it up. And showed me proof that I was not only wrong, but completely ignorant of being wrong. And then i exhibited stubbornness about it. I checked past dictionaries. I checked online websites. I scoured the earth for evidence that would indicate that Dilemma had, at least in the past, been spelled dilemna. But no, I was just taught wrong, way back in the day. Apparently, as far as I can figure out, we were using vocabulary books that had dilemma spelled with an n. But, when you have 30 vocabulary books spelling it with an N and one dictionary that's sitting gathering dust on a shelf, who the hell is going to check the spelling in the dictionary when it is so clearly spelled out in the vocabulary/spelling workbooks? Amazingly enough, I think what happened is, these vocabulary books were sent worldwide, because apparently, some people around my age in new zealand, australia, britain and other countries with native english speakers, also spell it with an N. Sure, it's not the right way to spell it, and the dictionaries in those countries spell it dilemma, but we were all taught the wrong way. However, despite my stubbornness, I have since adopted the spelling as dilemma and now, spelling it with an n looks wrong to my eyes, as it should be.
Now here's the brand of stubbornness that really bugs me. I am calling it willful or proud ignorance,for lack of a better name. There's tons of examples in everyday life, I've run into a couple just here today at work, mainly due to people calling in and asking for help, and then not giving me any clues as to what the problem is so that I can actually help. You know just a general "I have a problem, fix it!" type scenario. "What's the problem?" I would ask. "I don't know." Yea, i can't really work with that, sorry. Good luck with it.
Another prime example, and this just occurred to me, is religion, catholicism specifically. I'm using that as an example because I was born catholic. But at some point, I learned about other religions, and realized hey, mine not only wasn't the only one but it was the same as every other religion, and yet, all the religions say that their religion is the only right one and all others are wrong... which, led me to understand that they must ALL be wrong. So my ignorance at the point was simply that, ignorance, I just didn't know. Others, however, cling to the religion of catholicism worse than I clung to the spelling of dilemna. It would have been like, if my friend had showed me the correct spelling and I went BLASPHEMER!!!! BURN HIM!!!!! because that's literally what the fanatical religious nuts do. Fossils, evolution, concrete evidence of anything that might possibly contradict what is written in the bible, becomes the tool of Satan. It's all unreal to them, a completely untrue illusion that us deceivers are using to try and sway them from their righteous path. And that's just willful ignorance of the worst sort. No matter how much the people may need emotional guidance, denouncing fossilized bones as the tools of the devil is just idiocy.
Okay, out of time again. I really should stop doing my job completely here so I'd have more time to post, but I think eventually they might fire me for it, and then where would I get the time to blog? I'd have to go find another job, slack off there enough to blog, and it's just a vicious cycle that's best avoided, I think.
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