ignorance

I believe ignorance is pretty annoying, but only when the ignorant person actually believes he/she knows what he/she's talking about. I am very... I don't know, I try not to talk about things I don't know a thing of. I hate sounding like an airhead, and avoid it at all costs. But sometimes, I do. And hate myself when I do it.

When I don't know a thing about the subject being talked about, I just keep my mouth shut (a great feat, but I manage to do it somehow :P). And, if I haven't picked up anything by listening to the conversation that continues without me, I'll continue to keep silent. Until something really confuses me, then I'll ask "Huh? what was that?". Hopefully, after a couple of minutes of conversation, the subject will have changed. If not, I'll ask for an explaination, if the subject is interesting. If they ask my opinion, I'll ask for an explaination right away. "I really can't say what I think, 'cause I've no idea of what you guys are talking about. Care to explain?"

There. My thoughts on ignorance. (As if anyone really cared...)

"But what," he challenged, "of Adolf Hitler?"

"I do not believe in EVIL," I repeated.

"Only EVIL can explain Hitler's slaughter of the Jews, his murderous urge."

Men are not the words they have invented. Belief in embodied concepts precedes ignorance.

Ig"no*rance (?), n. [F., fr. L. ignorantia.]

1.

The condition of being ignorant; the want of knowledge in general, or in relation to a particular subject; the state of being uneducated or uninformed.

Ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. Shak.

2. Theol.

A willful neglect or refusal to acquire knowledge which one may acquire and it is his duty to have.

Book of Common Prayer.

Invincible ignorance Theol., ignorance beyond the individual's control and for which, therefore, he is not responsible before God.

© Webster 1913.