Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the more ignorant and foolish a person is, the more secure they are in their beliefs. Where a reasoning man or woman questions their assumptions and biases, a fool never burns a calorie in their mind at all, they see no need. The foolish and ignorant are the first to resort to anger and violence if their beliefs are questioned. Being foolish, they would rather fight than think, and that quality of the foolish is fundamental. Ignorance is a condition that can be repaired, but the foolish will see knowledge, especially knowledge that questions their world view, as heretical. So sure are they in their beliefs that they need not learn. All of which make the foolish and ignorant easy to pick out, they refuse to listen to argument, instead making personal attacks, are quick to anger, resort to force rather than reason, have religious like faith in mankind and government, and most of all they are certain about that which cannot be known.
Young people have little life experience and so are more foolish than someone with a great deal of life experience. This is both a benefit and a curse to them. It is beneficial because they are willing to innovate in the face of almost certain failure. This is often the source of human advancement and is why most advancement comes from the youth. It is a curse however since most tyrannies have been ushered in by the youth. They foolishly follow some charismatic villain and find they have forged their own chains. The foolish youth are quick to resort to violence and that tendency has been put to good use by many despots. Che Guevara lauded that tendency of the youth to engage in violence. Once they grow up however most people loose their foolishness in the passage of time.
Unlike religious faith, which is based on rational self interest, the foolish have faith in that which has proven itself unworthy of faith. To digress for a moment, Religious faith is based on rational self interest for a host of reasons, those who have faith in God lead happier lives, live longer, live healthier, have more success in life, have stronger family ties and the retirement benefits are much better than the alternative. Religious like faith in some person, system or idea is the path to catastrophe. Get enough zealots to follow a villain and tyranny results, blind faith in an economic system like socialism and the economic future of the people is forever lowered, unquestioned belief in an idea is how entire cultures are destroyed.
A recent poll of generation x concluded that as many as 40% of them are in favor of government restricting speech that might be offensive. The real number is probably lower, (I hope), but the vehemence of those that see no problem with government deciding what speech is acceptable, are so sure of their position they need not question themselves or their assumptions. Disagree with them and they immediately attack you as a hater. They can’t be bothered with reason, like the slippery slope argument, the history of such movements or that innovation requires free thought which flows from free speech. They are willingly forging their own (and our) chains, and are helped along by professors who never grew up and dropped their foolishness, because they never left the coddling cradle of academia.
A person need not be young to be foolish and some who are foolish are not ignorant but the two go together like chocolate and milk. Ignorance is not only a lack of knowledge, but the inability to apply knowledge, which is in itself a form of foolishness. There are people who don’t have a great deal of knowledge, but are wise, which again shows that knowledge is not proof against foolishness, and ignorance is not proof of foolishness. To be foolish is to be willfully ignorant, self inflicted and self directed. To be wise is to be open minded and willing to question assumptions, but not to abandon those concepts that have been tested in the crucible of time, to do so is to be foolish.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
