Varieties of Ignorance--and More

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Varieties of Ignorance--and More

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I) Varieties of Ignorance

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II) Deception and Engineered Ignorance 

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III) Ignorance of Ignorance

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I) Varieties of Ignorance

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Firstly, there is circumstantial ignorance. This is simply not knowing about something, from not having had access to that knowledge--for various reasons, including not having the chance or means or being denied acccess. We are all ignorant in this way. 

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Secondly, there is preoccupied ignorance--not having the time to know about something. 

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Thirdly, there is lazy, apathetic or disinterested ignorance--not bothering to know about something or not having the interest or inclination to know. 

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We are all also ignorant in this second way and this third way, to certain extents.

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Fourthly, there is willful ignorance. This is actively not wanting to know about something. Here too, all of us are ignorant to various degrees, some far more than others.

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Fifthly, there is zealot or proseletyzing ignorance. In this, we are not content with not knowing about something. We are determined that others should not know about that thing either, and do our best to make this so.

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IIA) Deception

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It is of course also possible to know about something--even be an expert about it--but not want others to know about it. 

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If we go beyond simply not wanting others to know the truth about something to trying to prevent them from learning it, what we are doing is hiding or obscuring the truth. 

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This can be done in several ways and with various degrees of effort and efficacy.

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IIB) Engineered Ignorance

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I had distinguished between the following types of ignorance, from which we all suffer (or benefit):

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1) circumstantial ignorance;

2) preoccupied ignorance;

3) lazy, apathetic or disinterested ignorance;

4) willful ignorance.

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Clearly these divisions are somewhat arbitrary. For example, the second type of ignorance may be seen as a special case of the first, while the fourth kind may be considered an extreme case of the third.

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I had also mentioned  a fifth kind of ignorance:

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5) zealot or proseletyzing ignorance.

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This is a rather harmful form of ignorance, from which most of us are hopefully free. Again, it may perhaps be considered a peculiar extension or outgrowth of the fourth kind. 

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I had then noted that we may also want others to remain ignorant about what we ourselves know. 

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I think we have all experienced this desire and acted on it--for example by lying or keeping quiet about some childhood (or adult) misdeed or fumble made by ourselves or someone we wanted to protect--or even something we or someone else did that might be innocuous or even "correct" in our eyes, but that might still incur the wrath of a parent, teacher, boss, spouse or other person(s). 

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But this kind of hiding and deception is not just a personal or local affair. It is also carried out on much wider scales. This happens, at various levels, almost everywhere. And this appears to have been going on for a very long time, with no end in sight.

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So it seems to me that there is perhaps a sixth form of ignorance:

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6) engineered or designed ignorance.

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Clearly, this is a special (but very important and distinct) variety of the first kind: circumstantial ignorance. In this special case, the circumstances for our ignorance have been engineered. They have arisen by design--that of some other folk. Or it could also be that we are the ones who have engineered the ignorance of some others.

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Many of us (in my generation and earlier) did not know how babies are made until we reached a certain age. This was probably by design. Our parents, other elders, teachers and others were willing to teach us some things, but avoided some others, considering us to be too young to learn about those "forbidden topics". 

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This may well have been to our benefit. We were perhaps being "protected" in a sense. Or it could simply have been that our parents, for instance, felt embarassed about discussing these things with us--just as most of us probably felt or still feel, about discussing them with our late or surviving parents, after we had eaten of that forbidden apple.

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But other cultures may not approach this matter in this way, and our cultures may also have shifted since then.

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In school, we learned many good things, quite a few of which we found useful later, beginning with the three R's. 

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But we never learned about other things that could well be equally or far more vital--such as basic personal finance or law.

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Was this an example of "engineered ignorance"? Were we kept in the dark about these two (and other basic survival) topics by design--not necessarily benevolent?

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I am not sure.

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III) Ignorance of Ignorance 

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This brings me to another, related topic: the awareness of ignorance.

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We may be ignorant about something, and aware that we are ignorant. Or we may be blissfully or harmfully unaware--ignorant--of our ignorance.

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The well known war criminal and conversational poet, Donald Rumsfeld, had once expressed this particular kind of awareness and lack of awareness in a nutshell.  

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I paraphrase: 

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"First, there are the knowns. Then there are the known unknowns. And then there are the unknown unknowns."

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2019, June 21

Brooklyn, New York

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