Importance Of Ignorance

Ignorance of History

Technology gives our generation unprecedented amounts of information and allows for a better understanding of our past and present. Even so, this excess knowledge opens the door to useless facts and news, so much so, that we’ve built a raft of ignorant and pointless information in the tides of knowledge. Our generation have become so enthralled in pop culture and current events that we have forgotten basis of all our knowledge and accomplishments--history. Many claim these people are simply keeping up-to-date on the world around us, and that it is not only harmless but is beneficiary to their learning and education. These claims, however; are a weak attempt at defending ignorance, seeing as educating history and current

In other words, “Ignorance is not merely the lack of knowledge, but self-destructive turning away from truth in all areas of life.” (Vanquishing Ignorance n. page) Though some think ignorance not a significant danger, this quote states it in undeniably truthful terms, showing the potential danger this ignorance wields. To put this in a clearer light, there was an incident not so long ago known as the Lynchings in Duluth which was an incident where three african americans, in 1920, where dragged from their cell and hanged. This was hushed up for years to avoid cutting a scar in the racial tolerant north, but eventually surfaced and was written off as another white man’s--or rather white mob’s--racist actions. However as Ken Jensen said, “Students need to understand the context of the huge race riots of the early part of this century [being 1900’s].” This relating to what he later gave, “Between the years 1882 and 1951, 4,730 people were lynched in the United States: 3,437 African-Americans and 1,293 white Americans.” These facts surprise most, as it has been the stereotype that whites were the only racists and blacks the only oppressed, and it is true in some cases, as black were subject to slavery and oppression very openly, but what most people don’t realize is that oppression wasn’t only one-sided, and it’s our modern ignorance that has lead us to believe

Furthermore a demurral for this would be that the one in one thousand mentioned are the college students, and therefore isn’t lack of education, rather lack of drive for higher education. However Rita Christina, an american journalist, was surveying college students and found startlingly that these students didn’t even know what the holocaust was. These examples are a direct reflection on what our society prioritizes today--pop culture over historical facts. The true danger of this to completely forget. “Without knowing our past, where we come from, we are complete nobodies. We are what we are because of those who made us this” (Rita Christina: Ignorance). If we are to forget our past, then every accomplishment, every success is worth nothing. Should we ignore our past we isolate ourselves in a void of repetition where we cannot learn from our mistakes as we have forgotten them. For example should we forget the feminist movement in the 20th century and a generation that follows us is in the slightest bit biased in gender then we may have an entire repeat that would have been avoided at the acknowledgement of that original civil rights movement. We must address this problem of ignorance, however it doesn’t start with our