_ _ _ _ Facial hermeneutics _ _ _ _

                             In  the  space  between

                                                                                your glance

                                 and my take on its

meaning

                                  there is a fog of


                                     need-hope/
                                     hope-need:


                              the source of all texts.

Skidding

Do you remember when
the puddles froze over and
with your grip-worn school shoes
you launched yourself upon that tiny rink?

Skidding, sailing, blurring.
Gliding above the asphalt,
your step smearing into infinity.

And when you first controlled
the wobbling wheel of your bike
and your balance came good
pedalling down the driveway triumphant.

Steering, turning, rolling.
Crunching down the gravel,
your momentum gathering pace.

What about when you first took off
careering down a wave?
You felt the board surge beneath you
and a new rush soared within.

Dropping, bursting, cruising.
Elation in the sea,
your heart pounding with victory.

Douglas Carswell: Two Kinds of Ignorant

A lot of people have been jumping on Douglas Carswell's latest display of ignorance on twitter. Business Insider called the argument 'bizarre', and also published some of the many witty online responses. My thoughts are that as an educator, what concerns me isn't someone not knowing something, (even something that might seem to be fairly basic science). We all have gaps in our knowledge and probably we all have a quite substantial number of incorrect beliefs. In this case, though we may be surprised he doesn't know about the moon's effect on tides, I think those who are berating him for being 'stupid' are missing the point. This isn't his area of expertise. (I don't know what is, but I'd hazard a guess that his specialist subject on Mastermind would be 'The many flaws of Europeans'). For me, the real issue is not that he didn't know, it's his continued insistence on being right even when his error was pointed out, saying that he was 'surprised' that a 'head of science research at a university' would refute his belief.

This isn't directly a post about the theological notions of vincible and invincible ignorance, but about the problem of this kind of 'reinforced' ignorance. Though the Google dictionary defines ignorance as a 'lack of knowledge', there is another modern usage of the word, which may be non-standard, but has become quite widespread, which means, roughly speaking, 'the act of not listening, of ignoring'. (I've heard a number of people call someone 'ignorant', apparently because they were angry at being ignored rather than because they got something wrong). This makes it a particularly vicious kind of character flaw. I call it 'reinforced' ignorance, because the possession of this trait means that not only is someone likely to have many inaccurate beliefs, but they are less likely to be able to change them when presented with new evidence or testimony. In Buddhist philosophy, ignorance (moha) is one of the three kleshas, or 'root poisons' which cloud the mind and lead us to suffering. According to Nyanatiloka Mahathera, it's basically the worst thing in the world: "all evil things, and all evil destiny, are really rooted in greed, hate and ignorance; and of these three things ignorance or delusion (moha, avijja) is the chief root and the primary cause of all evil and misery in the world. If there is no more ignorance, there will be no more greed and hatred, no more rebirth, no more suffering."

Whilst that all might seem a bit over the top with respect to this case, I should re-emphasise that it doesn't concern me that Carswell was wrong about some aspect of science. It concerns me that he had the arrogance to question the scientist rather than accepting his mistake. It concerns me that the paranoid attitude of a number of UKIP types who are disparaging about the advice of 'experts seems to be becoming more widespread, along with the rise of conspiracy theories in general. I've always liked that quote from Edith Sitwell: "I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it". In a similar way, I can be patient with Carswell's ignorance, but not his reinforced ignorance. I feel the same way when I encounter students who simply won't learn because of their attitude, not because of any lack of intelligence.