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The Little Encyclopedia of Modern Ignorance by Kevin Casey - Amazon book page
Category:
Mainstream
Publisher: Kimberley Publication
ISBN-10: B08XQYQMM1
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 105
Copyright: 1 march 2021
ISBN-13: 9781393581802
Price: $7.99 (eBook)
This confronting examination of modern ignorance looks at our most common forms of 21st-century denial, information bias and factual distortion - and how much our disregard of factual reality is hurting us all.
This book takes a no-holds-barred look at some of the baffling ways our brains temporarily cease to function as we navigate the 21st century.
As a species, we appear to be transforming from healthy scientific skeptics into ill-informed, outraged cynics. We are losing our intellectual humility, reluctant to accept the limits of our knowledge. We are entering a new post-factual age in which spin overrides reason and science is forced to compete with head-in-the-sand denial. Alternate truths are driven by ideology and selfish agendas.
The Little Encyclopedia of Modern Ignorance is a timely, confronting and thoroughly researched examination of the many ways today's human not only suffers from ignorance, but at times even enthusiastically embraces it.
Taking unflinching aim at topics as wide-ranging as astrology, bottled water, dieting, economic growth, life coaching, psychics, racism, recycling, religion, soft drinks, vaccination and even cinema popcorn, this book explores some of our most common forms of contemporary ignorance – and explains just how harmful they can be to our health, environment, progress as a species and integrity as a society.
In an age where belief, misdirected emotion and personal/political agendas so often blur fact, The Little Encyclopedia of Modern Ignorance is a breath of fresh air that aims to swing the pendulum gently back toward intellectual curiosity and diligently acquired knowledge. Above all, it emphatically demonstrates that ignorance is not bliss - and never will be.
We don't know what we don't want to know. Ignorance isn't an inability to spot the truth - it's a fearful reluctance to pry our eyes open when it's right in front of us. This book encourages us to open our eyes and re-evaluate our preconceptions. Only by confronting our own collective ignorance can we reinvigorate rational objectivity and reason.
Controversial, entertaining and unashamedly politically incorrect, The Little Encyclopedia of Modern Ignorance is a must-read book in 2021 and beyond. The author doesn't hold back in convincingly dismantling some of our most cherished 21st-century perceptions.
Warning: this intelligent, superbly written page-turner may completely change how you view the world... and yourself.
Excerpt
TABLE OF CONTENTS
About the author
Introduction
Anti-aging products
Astrology
Bank fees
Bottled water
Cinema popcorn
Climate change denial
Dieting
Detox cleansing
Economic growth
Geography
Health supplements
Life coaching
Multi-level marketing
Overfishing
Overpopulation denial
Psychics
Racism
Recycling
Religion
Soft drinks
Smoking
Sustainability
Vaccination
Introduction
According to fictional detective Nero Wolfe, “The avoidance of idiocy should be the primary and constant concern of every intelligent person”.
I have written this book for the express purpose of assisting intelligent people with that noble goal. None of us can be brilliant all the time but on occasion, we can all be downright silly about how we interpret simple facts.
As a species, we appear to be transforming from healthy scientific skeptics into ill-informed, outraged cynics. We are losing our intellectual humility, reluctant to accept the limits of our knowledge. We are entering a new post-factual age in which spin overrides reason and science is forced to compete with head-in-the-sand denial. Alternate truths are driven by political division and selfish agendas.
It is my hope that this volume will go some way in nudging the pendulum gently in the opposite direction.
We should all embrace facts and be comforted by them. We should derive satisfaction from separating facts from the sludge that so often surrounds them. We should find the increasingly blurry line between facts, opinions and lies disconcerting. The first step in battling ignorance is to acknowledge its existence and recognize how adversely if affects all our lives, creeping around the back door of logic and poisoning the well of common sense.
This book takes a no-holds-barred look at some of the baffling ways our brains temporarily cease to function as we navigate the 21st century.
Ignorance is a widely misused term. It’s often dragged into service as a synonym for stupidity but they’re not the same. Stupidity is a reflection of intellectual capacity, while ignorance refers to a shortage of knowledge. Stupid people lack brainpower. Ignorant people lack understanding of a particular subject. Babies are both ignorant and intelligent: ignorant because they don’t know much yet but intelligent because they have an extraordinary capacity to learn.
Being knowledgeable doesn’t automatically negate stupidity, of course. A highly educated person who has voluntarily closed their mind off to new ideas disables their learning capacity and muffles their own intelligence. Stupidity and ignorance can overlap and frequently do.
It’s no insult to call someone ignorant unless their ignorance is wilful. Selective ignorance is a conscious choice.
Every genius is ignorant about plenty of things. A quantum physics professor who doesn’t know how to milk a cow or play gin rummy isn’t stupid – they’re just uninformed about those topics.
Stupidity is a tough nut to crack but ignorance is easily overcome – you simply become better informed. We are all born ignorant. It’s our capacity to learn, understand and accept new ideas that keeps ignorance at bay.
Living in the Information Age, you might think that ignorance would be a thing of the past, bludgeoned into submission by the vast wealth of knowledge available at our fingertips. After all, can’t we just Google anything we don’t understand and get all the pertinent facts we need?
Alas, no. Ignorance doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s enthusiastically fed and nurtured by denial, bias, personal agendas, greed, apathy, divisiveness, fear, political expedience and pure delusion. Ignorance can be passed from one generation to the next with righteous zeal and be glorified by the most incomprehensible arguments. Some people aren’t just wary about new knowledge – they’re openly hostile toward it because it threatens to disrupt and undermine the well-worn comfort of their ignorance.
It is said that a weak fact is always greater than the strongest opinion. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop people from habitually confusing the two.
Today, we have easy access to an amazing global library of knowledge, a cornucopia of magnificent facts. Sadly, a significant chunk of this information is fudged, unsupported, diluted or tainted with blatant bias. A curious and intelligent person can normally sift through this buffalo dung to locate the truth but to have a real chance of success, they must first be motivated.
That is the gist of the problem. Knowledge that collides with our worldview and rudely jostles our rigid preconceptions is always considered suspect and sets the stage for vehement denial. Ignorance becomes a wobbly shield that helps us avoid the uncomfortable, dodge the factual and excuse the inexcusable.
You often hear that ‘everyone is entitled to their opinion’. Not really: everyone is entitled to their informed opinion. Nobody’s ignorance deserves the same status as another’s knowledge. Anti-intellectualism is no cause for pride.
We don’t know what we don’t want to know. Ignorance isn’t an inability to spot the truth. It’s a fearful reluctance to pry our eyes open when it’s right in front of us.
So, what are some of the most glaring examples of modern ignorance? In which situations are we most likely to think we know it all when we’re still missing big pieces of the puzzle? What circumstances cause emotions, lack of objectivity, gullibility, denial and personal/political allegiances to spring forth and block out logic? What shallow assumptions lead us to embrace distortion, believe nonsense and dismiss fact?
What we don’t know can hurt us and frequently does – emotionally, financially, health-wise and in countless other ways. The topics in this book represent just the tip of an enormous iceberg. As you peruse them, you’re sure to spot patterns of ignorance that apply to the full breadth of human activities and mindsets.
Ignorance is a funny thing: we gleefully attribute it to others while failing to recognise it in ourselves. Ignorance shrinks from change, especially when that change must come from within.
The assertion that ‘you can’t argue with facts’ is no longer true. These days, arguing with proven knowledge has become something of a global hobby. We latch onto the convenient, dismiss the disconcerting and feel good about our outrage, however poorly informed. We respect the sanctity of science only when it agrees with us.
Astute readers will note that this is not an encyclopedia in the traditional sense (the failure to commence with ‘Aardvark’ and end with ‘Zygote’ is, perhaps, a dead giveaway). And since political correctness is both a literary nuisance and a stifling shackle, you won’t find it in these pages. Facts are best presented naked and without coddling; the truth needn’t be surrounded with cotton wool.
If some of the facts in this book fly in the face of everything you’ve been taught from a young age, that’s okay. Just make sure you question both the facts and your beliefs with equal objectivity. That’s what intelligent people do. Adding useful information to your life isn’t difficult. You’ll find that the more functional knowledge you shove into a brain, the more it will hold.
Ignorance is not bliss. It is the most debilitating of voluntary human afflictions. It is devastation, poverty, illness, apathy, hate, cruelty and destruction. It is the most potent and unforgiving of tragedies and an enemy well worth fighting.
So, let’s take an unflinching look at where it lives….
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