To be fair, everyone is prone to bursts of ignorance. I’m sure even Ben Franklin occasionally left home without his wallet, or, without thinking, returned his jug of milk to the pantry as opposed to the fridge.
[1] But there is a difference between these small moments of absent-mindedness, of being distracted from the task at hand and as a result mildly messing up something that can be easily fixed, and of being just outright ignorant 24/7 regardless of circumstance or state of mind, and not just
being ignorant, but actually
enjoying and being
proud of being ignorant to the point of flaunting it (the ignorance) like some kind of badge of honor bestowed on you at birth to use at will to ensure that you can get the attention you “deserve” any time you feel you are being slighted. The latter is inexcusable, and ultimately such a debilitating burden on society that it will often drive otherwise sane, reasonable, and Non-Chronically Ignorant people to violence.
For the sake of clarity, I think it would be helpful to set some parameters around the word
ignorant and define
Chronically Ignorant. Most people abuse
ignorant in one of three ways: 1. By using it interchangeably with
stupid; 2. By using it in cases where a much stronger word would have been more appropriate; and 3. By assuming that
ignorant is always offensive. For the sake of our purposes here it is most important to differentiate
ignorant and
stupid (abuse #1, above). Very simply:
Ignorant implies that a person simply does not know some information, e.g. I am ignorant of thermodynamics. I will allow this definition of
ignorant to include the not-knowing of abstract, and/or in-flux, and/or culturally arbitrary things such as social codes, manners, etiquette, common niceties, etc.
Stupid, a much stronger adjective, implies that the subject is beyond simply
not knowing, and one of two things is taking place: 1. The subject knows full well what he/she should do in any given social context, but refuses to acknowledge the
right way to act/react, and instead chooses their own way, which they believe to be superior even though all objective evidence would say that it is not. 2. The subject is somehow physically/mentally/emotionally incapable of retaining and utilizing knowledge of any kind.
[2]Chronically Ignorant is somewhat of a gray area, but basically breaks down like this: There are some individuals who act consistently ignorant on a day to day basis. They never know anything in the world besides the events taking place within 50 ft. of their nose. They never think through any decision, but always act on their first instinct, which is usually wrong. They have an aversion to knowledge (are repulsed by it, in fact), do not want to be corrected concerning anything, do not want to know what is the right thing to do in any given case but instead put in extra effort to make the wrong thing work. And they truly, deeply believe that they are the most important person on the face of the earth, and that everyone else exists to serve them. Basically, Chronic Ignorance is like a consistent display of the symptoms of stupidity without the actual diagnosis. But to be fair, real stupidity is unmanageable; even Chronic Ignorance can be fixed through the teaching and learning of social norms and behaviors.
There are many types and manifestations of this ignorance, and to give an exhaustive list with examples for each would be a much greater task than I am capable of. I simply want to point to the one or two types which have affected me directly as of late, and ponder ways that we (the Non-Chronically Ignorant public)
[3] can bring an end to the nonsense.
C.I. BEHAVIORAL CASE STUDY 001:
PROBLEMS IN TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AND BASIC DRIVING ETIQUETTE
One of the first things they teach you in driver’s ed., and one of the most important things a driver can know, is that you can’t turn left at a red light.
[4] This is as elementary as using your blinker when planning to turn, turning on your headlights when it gets too dark to see, hitting your brakes when you need to stop, turning on the heat or a/c as needed, etc. I’m no statistician, but I would guess that turning left at a red light would end in disaster and/or death something like 99.99% of the time due to the fact that the cars driving in a direction perpendicular to yours, those who have the right-a-way, are exercising their right to the road by cruising at or above the legal limit through said traffic light and not expecting to have to deal with some C.I. case pulling out in front of them like they own the world.
If you think all of this goes without saying, I do too--which common acknowledgement makes it all the more ridiculous that I have to say it. In fact, the need to state the obvious to or regarding someone is generally a clear initial sign that you are dealing with a C.I. case of the highest order. There is something about the C.I.’s brain construction or worldview
[5] that obscures what is otherwise obvious information. I contend that this is a manifestation of some level of narcissism, i.e. in the case of driving, the person is so concerned with No. 1--their own personal drama, daydream, telephone conversation, money, dog in their lap, kids in the backseat, or whatever--that you, the laws of the land, and society in general take a backseat to their Ego,
[6] and may in fact (depending on the level of narcissism we’re dealing with) exist solely to serve that person, their Ego
and their drama, daydream, telephone conversation, etc. At any rate, these people’s self-involvement not only keeps them from seeing, but even from
comprehending the obvious purpose and necessity of things like traffic laws.
[7]And so I, Joni, and E.K. found ourselves, on the day before Thanksgiving, headed to Biedenharn Gardens to take pictures for Christmas cards.
[8] We were sitting at the very busy intersection of N. 18th and Forsythe, trying to turn left off of 18th. (For those unfamiliar with the territory, 18th crosses Forsythe to become Marie Place, so cars are coming from/going in four different directions. To compound the busyness and danger of the intersection is the fact that, when turning left from 18th onto Forsythe, there is no green arrow giving you the right-a-way, there is only a green light, which also gives traffic coming from Marie Place straight over to 18th the right-a-way, making the left turn from 18th difficult.) And as we were sitting there, second in line at the red light, minding our own pre-holiday business, surely chuckling at something E.K. was doing or saying, we began to hear this HONK. I ignored it at first, assuming that there was some sort of exchange HONK going on somewhere in line behind us. I did not know or HONK care if it was a friendly exchange, or a contentious HONK one, but I figured I was safe in assuming that since I was HONK minding my own business and hadn’t committed any traffic offenses HONK on my way up 18th, and that at the moment I was stopped HONK at a red light and therefore incapable of doing anything that could be offensive to HONK anyone, the interaction did not involve me in any way.
The longer we sat (second in line, I’ll remind you) at the red light, the more frequent the HONKing got. Finally, the light turned green, and the truck in front of us had a hard time making the turn due to the heavy flow of traffic coming across from Marie Place. The truck finally squeezed through as the light turned yellow and left me, my nose sticking out into Forsythe Ave., first in line at the red light. And the HONKing continued. It gained in frequency and intensity, the only good thing being HONK that the consistency of the racket enabled me to pinHONKpoint the culprit. It was the S.U.V. directly behind me. A woman--white, middle-aged, upper-middle class--behind the HONK wheel. The light finally turned green, and I, being more careful than I normally would have been due to the precious cargo in tow, eased my way out into the melee in the middle of the intersection, waiting for a good opportunity to make my move.
Now, up until this point I had given this woman the benefit of the doubt, mainly because the thought that she could be HONKing at me for not turning left at a red light in a busy intersection was so absurd as to be beyond either comprehension or belief. I would allow room for the legitimacy of the HONK
[9] if I had somehow offended this woman prior to stopping at the red light, but no incident had occurred between her and me. Regardless, she was not holding back at this point. The HONKs were coming rapid-fire, so fast that they were almost forming syllables and words of their own profane language. Finally, I squeezed through the mess, and unfortunately, so did the psychotic C.I. case behind me.
Now, what I did next was not nice, but was, I think, called for, and, due to the fact that it was retaliatory, cannot be considered socially equal with HONKing at a stranger for no good reason.
[10] I got in the right lane and simply let off of the gas pedal. I did not touch the brake, but I let the thing go as slow as it would go, refusing to put forth any effort to make the vehicle move. After following behind me at 10 or 15 mph. for a few seconds, the woman finally passed me. At this point, I let it go. I’d had my say, and as baffled as I was by the whole encounter, I reminded my self that some people are just that way. And then, the woman, this insufferably irritable human being, put on her blinker to turn right. Naturally, I got into the left lane to pass her and go on about our merry way. In the process of making the pass, Joni turned to the woman (who is now rolling down her window), and gave her a very animated and well-deserved, “What-is-your-problem?”-type shrug. TO WHICH (and I am using all CAPS here because this is just too unbelievable) THIS WOMAN RESPONDED BY STICKING HER TONGUE OUT AT US, and followed up that juvenile gesture with the more adult, yet getting-pretty-boring, standard old one-fingered salute.
Now, there are several symptoms of Chronic Ignorance on display here: 1. The woman flouted all applicable social codes by not only ignoring herself, but insisting that I ignore an obvious law (which exists in order to preserve the safety of the driving public) in order to do something which would suit her. Which brings us to 2. She was obviously acting out of self-interest. This alone is really only human, but what makes it symptomatic of C.I. in this case is that her self-interested activity infringed upon me, and requested that I put myself and family in danger in order to serve her purposes. And 3. She, a grown woman, stuck her tongue out at us.
Treating this particular type of Chronic Ignorance--that involving fly-by encounters that offer zero opportunity for correction and follow-up--can be tricky to the point of being impossible. It is unlikely that I will ever share the same stretch of road with this woman again, and even more unlikely that if I did, I would even know who she was. So, what we have to focus on in these cases is Education and Prevention. Following are some simple principles/guidelines for educating others in order to prevent occurrences like this from happening again.
1. Set a good example on the road. Too many people drive like maniacs, like a five-year-old playing Pole Position
[11] who isn’t tall enough to see the screen, but who drives like a scalded Bat out of Hades because it is just awesome to go fast, showing no regard for the boundaries of the road, or the game’s point system, which obviously does not reward bad driving. This is both ridiculous and
ridiculous. Wherever you’re going will be there when you get there, and it will do the world a service if you don’t add to the madness but rather, through your actions, let everybody know that it’s okay to slow down.
2. Do not acknowledge, in any way, blatant displays of ignorance. Our fatal mistake in the case above was to acknowledge this woman’s erratic and ridiculous behavior by driving slow in her lane, and then by giving her the shrug. Had we ignored her, she would have had no opportunity for further offense, nor would she have gotten the last word.
[12] To ignore someone’s assault is actually more proactive that reacting with an assault of your own because if there’s anything worse than being cussed out or flipped off, it’s being ignored.
3. Publicly mock bad and reckless drivers as often as possible. This is a very simple suggestion. What it will do is let your friends, family, and anyone else who listens know that people think this kind of thing is ridiculous, because heaven knows that some of them have been guilty of the same things.
[13] The hoped-for effect is that the next time they do something ignorant on the road, they will remember your harsh words directed at people like them and feel deep shame and regret over their actions. This will continue until they have eventually broken their own bad habit from not wanting to feel like a jerk anymore.
I realize these are small things, but remember, if we can keep even one person from being a menace to public safety and common sense, we are doing our job.
NOTES
1.
[BACK TO POST] As we have all done at one time or another, and yes, I know that refrigerators were not around in Ben’s day. But you get my point.
2.
[BACK TO POST] I want to make clear here that I am not referring to legitimate cases of mental handicap. I’m more talking about a nurture thing as opposed to a nature thing, wherein the subject was most likely raised to not give a crap about anything or anyone that was not him/herself.
3.
[BACK TO POST] The obvious danger of putting myself in the category of Non-Chronically Ignorant (N.C.I.) is that I run the risk of also putting myself in the category of Arrogantly Competent (A.C.), and if there’s anything worse than ignorant people, it’s smart people who wield their intelligence--or at the least their competence at getting along in society--like some kind of club used to beat the Chronically Ignorant (C.I.) masses into submission.
4.
[BACK TO POST] The one exception being if the red light is at an intersection of a one way street with the flow of traffic going left. But this is like Driving 401 information, upper-level stuff that you really only learn through experience.
5.
[BACK TO POST] Again, a classic nature/nurture-type quandary.
6.
[BACK TO POST] It’s complicated, but capitalized here because in these cases the Ego becomes a proper noun--its own entity to be dealt with separately from the person.
7.
[BACK TO POST] Examples of bad driving due to C.I.-related behavior: Not using a blinker, ever; driving below speed limit in left lane; tailgating; not knowing how a 4-way stop works; turning left when the sign clearly says you can’t; driving in excess of 10 mph above or below the legal limit. There are more, but you get the idea.
8.
[BACK TO POST] An endeavor which failed due to the fact that yours truly forgot to charge the battery on the camera. It is worth noting that I bought a camera with a rechargeable lithium battery precisely so I wouldn’t have to deal with things like batteries dying at inconvenient times.
9.
[BACK TO POST] Much to my wife’s chagrin, I am known to employ the HONK in various types of vehicular confrontations, and on a pretty regular basis. When driving it is one’s only communication with rest of the herd, and let’s be honest--nothing screams “You’re an idiot!” quite like the sweet, bovine-like bellow of a Toyota horn. Point is, the HONK is a useful tool when warranted; when unwarranted it is the cultural equivalent of the glove-slap across the face. Or, to use a more timely example, someone throwing their shoes at you.
10.
[BACK TO POST] Did I mention that this psychotic and Chronically Ignorant woman was HONKing at me for NOT turning left at a red light?
11.
[BACK TO POST] A car racing video game released in 1982 by Namco. An intentionally anachronistic reference.
12.
[BACK TO POST] Now, the “last word” in this case is meaningless to me because, again, it was the sticking out of a tongue, but I’m sure that in her mind this signified a win.
13.
[BACK TO POST] Mea culpa. I will refer you back to note 9.
