I have heard it rumored that a great American thinker once opined that nothing is more expensive than ignorance. No, it was not the educator, lawyer, and former president of Harvard University, Derek Bok. He said, and I quote: “ignorance is more expensive than education” – not the same at all. Regardless of who said what when, it is quite feasible that both intellectuals are correct in their assertions. Not that I aim to be contrary or argumentative; but for the sake of debate, I would like to contribute my opinion.

I hold that nothing is more valuable to domestic harmony than ignorance; wherein ignorance is lack of knowledge and not illiteracy, stupidity, callowness, immorality, or inexperience. The quest for knowledge is the gantry holding our societal missile at the ready. Remove the staging and our rocket is in danger of collapse. There are sundries of things that each of us should know and there is no reason to allow skepticism or nescience to impede our acquiring that knowledge.

Balderdash, bunk, bilge, baloney, babble, blabber, gibberish, hogwash, hooey, hot air, jive, malarkey, palaver, prattle, rubbish, or whatever else it is known as; it’s all the same: plain old fashioned, bullshit. Although today’s world is realizing unprecedented levels of the stuff, most people are confident in their ability to recognize and avoid being taken in by it…yet sooner or later, each of us tempts a ride on the ‘stuff addiction’ train.