Labeling the Mind

You see them everywhere: Facebook, Linked In, Instagram, News programs, Blogs… People expressing opinions on everything from Climate Change to Politics to the Economy to Religion… Basing those opinions on incomplete or false information has become the national sport.

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Someone will see that little snippet and declare that all the baseball franchises in the US now belong to Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerburg and are being closed down because of inappropriate behavior in elevators. There are two causes for this: Ignorance and Stupidity.

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Ignorant, meaning?

1.??? ?

a.???? ?destitute?of knowledge or education

an?ignorant?society

also:?lacking knowledge or?comprehension?of the thing specified

parents?ignorant?of modern mathematics

b.???? resulting from or showing lack of knowledge or intelligence

ignorant?errors

2.???? UNAWARE,?UNINFORMED

3. ?resulting from or showing lack of knowledge

an?ignorant?mistake

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Ignorant?shares a root with the word?ignore, one of those?etymological?connections which appear obvious once they are pointed out, yet remained overlooked by most. Both words come from the Latin?ignorare?(“to ignore, be ignorant of”). There are several meanings of?ignorant, all of which are concerned with a lack of knowledge in some sense.

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“Ignorant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ignorant. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

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Stupid, meaning

1.???? ?

a.???? slow of mind?

b.??? given to unintelligent decisions or acts?:?acting in an unintelligent or careless manner

c.????? ?lacking intelligence or reason?

2.???? dulled in feeling or sensation?:?

still?stupid?from the sedative

3.???? marked by or resulting from unreasoned thinking or acting:?

?a?stupid?decision

Word origin:

Middle French?stupide, from Latin?stupidus, from?stupēre?to be numb, be astonished (stupefied)

“Stupid.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stupid. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

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To be clear, I HATE blogs or emails that start out with definitions.? That’s why I put the definitions in the third paragraph instead of the first. Before you object to those labels, ignorant and stupid, let me explain. I object to them, too.

Ignorance is a CHOICE. And Stupidity is an OPINION.

With all the access we have to accurate information, there really is no excuse for us to be ignorant of anything. Yet how many of us will look at an incendiary article, get our “mad” on, and either repost it or send lightning bolts to the writer’s toilet. How many will take rumor for truth instead of checking all the aspects and deciding for ourselves what the truth is?

Can people with P.H.D.s be ignorant? Of course. Ask a Doctor of Psychology about migration patterns in the diaspora of the 1st century Jews. He may be ignorant of that aspect of history. Does that make him a fool? Nope. Ask him if the Jewish philosophy of life might have an influence on the mental approach to problems faced in twenty-first century New Yorkers. He might be inspired to do some research on that. Would he then be ignorant of this new facet? Nope. Why? Because he has now exerted himself to stretch his awareness of that consideration.

Ignorance is that information or awareness that we choose to ignore. Is ignorance always a bad thing? It’s not like we could all be omniscient. We know how society hates a know-it-all… But that also means that your learning and your exposure to new ideas, new processes, new insights never ends. If you think it has, and you’re not on death’s door, you are sadly mistaken. Ignorance on subject matter is largely a matter of relevance. Do I NEED to know this to continue my business or my relationships at the status quo? If the answer is no, or not yet, don’t sweat it. On the other hand, do I WANT to know this because it scratches my curiosity itch? Yes? Then go for it. You may discover relevance you hadn’t seen before. But before you form an opinion or choose a side, make sure you are not ignorant of the issues at hand.

Stupidity, though. That’s my windmill. Stupidity is someone’s estimate of your mental capacity. Literally, “Is your brain capable of handling information at this level?”

Think of this: I walk into my kitchen and turn on the light, then I smell something odd. I check the garbage can, the trash, the refrigerator, the microwave, the stove… I cannot locate the smell. I call a repairman. I tell him there’s an odd smell in my kitchen. He asks me all the common questions. Then he tells me it should go away and not to worry about it. Wait… How could he know that based on a description of a smell? He has no idea what’s causing it, if it’s electric, if it’s a bug infestation, or if it’s a skunk that crawled under the house!

So when someone uses the word “stupid” around me, it gets my hackles up. There is NO possible way anyone can crawl into a person’s head and examine and measure their brain capacity! It’s an opinion at best. It would be like walking into a cave without a flashlight. You don’t know where you’re going. You cannot recognize features when you run into them. And you might find a very large dragon with a very short temper! The only one capable of discerning brain capacity is the person who owns the brain.

What does this mean?

I consider ignorant people to be those who think they know all they need to know. They do not engage in thinking or discovery because the status quo is just fine, thank you very much. All I can say is, “Well, bless your heart.”

I consider stupid people those who have never allowed curiosity to prickle their brains and make attempts at learning something new because they think, “What’s the use?”

Can both learn new things? Absolutely. To what extent? As far as they want to go.

Here’s what we want to take away from this:

Stupidity and Ignorance should not be life sentences.

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#intelligence #teaching #awareness #curiosity #factfinding