Thursday, September 24, 2009

Erring On The Side of Ignorance


One of the difficulties I’ve found with the established and present world order stems from an ideology based upon a naive philosophy which mistakenly licenses elitism to a level of omniscience; wherein those whom have past throw the hallways of academia nonchalantly claim a right to distinguish themselves above the less educated, a sense that they have earned the rights to privileges beyond the ever reaching grasp of the unthinking masses. What has me so rattle about this situation rest within the historic fact that knowledge is ever expanding and has no true master, in essence; one is capable and evidently able to learn something absolutely, before, undiscovered.

It becomes laughable to observe so-called intellectual minds baffled when face with an issue they, themselves, are unable to neither understand nor succinctly articulate with any form of competency or rationality; where those whom have personally pursued knowledge fairly all their natural lives openly admit that their many years of higher education had not properly prepared them for the particular issue at hand. This, more than any, brings a level of sadness to my heart; to recognize the flaws of someone whom have trained themselves to become flawless, to view themselves as experts in any particular field and still confess their ignorance to the profession they have so greatly excelled above and beyond illogical thinking minds within society.

Is it even possible to claim special knowledge of, and upon, anything yet still not entirely understand that to which you have mastered? Ought we to, as finite beings, justify our limited understanding of our world by simplistically seeking to conclusively establish, by way of incomplete experimental studies, that we have learned all there is to know, of and about any particular item; to a degree that promotes one to the levels of doctorate, or, our we simply fools fooling ourselves and unfortunately misleading others?

It is say that “man creates standards and later serves them as though they were divine creations, only to discover ultimately that Deity had no hand in their fashioning”, that one whom had attained “higher education” almost often than never pursue careers positions of greater authority than their less educated peers based upon a misguided premise that they, alone, possess a better understanding of the world that others. This arrogance of intellectual significance place not only themselves but the whole world in a perpetual state of impending danger, and, more alarming is the acceptance with which the world so generously and graciously follows, almost without question, the mentality behind such irrational reasoning.

Bearing in mind the many examples set by past and present world leaders, it begs to question whom is more ignorant; those that claim leadership by way of birthright and/or academic accomplishment, or, those who have elected them to their lofty positions? Therefore I conclude with this quote attesting to that ancient truth which states “if wisdom is to instruct ignorance, it must be capable of appreciating the state of ignorance as truly as the state of knowledge” and to that I humbly yet emphatically add; ignorance is not only bliss but, indeed, the first step on the pathway to wisdom.