Uninformed is a temporary condition, fixed more easily than ever.
Ignorant, on the other hand, is the dangerous situation where someone
making a decision is uninformed and either doesn't know or doesn't care about their lack of knowledge.
The internet lets us become informed, if we only are willing to put in
the time and the effort. That's new - the ability to easily and confidently look
it up, learn about it, process it and publish to see if you got it right.
Alas, the internet also creates an environment where it's possible to
feel just fine about being ignorant. It's easier than ever to live in a silo
where we are surrounded by others who think it's just great to not know.
"Ignorant" used to be a fairly vague epithet, one that we
often misused to describe someone who disagreed with us. Today, because it
represents a choice, the intentional act of not-knowing, it carries a
lot more weight.
The
more I think about this, the more I am aware of how ignorant I've chosen to
be. A useful wake-up call.
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