Why are people ignorant?

by Fact-Man

I think it's very easy for people to grow up being intellectually lazy and disinterested, which probably runs in families. Child psychologists and educators tell us that much of the basis of who we become has been set in stone by age seven. That means the family environment is the biggest variable. In families that do not read or where educational achievement has been low or in which there's a paucity of intellectual curiosity, children won't be exposed to the wonders of learning about the world and how it works or be taught any critical thinking skills.

We have to differentiate between "ignorance" and "lack of information." I'm not particularly well informed on lots of topics and so am ignorant of them. But I can think critically, face facts and good evidence, learn, and reach some intelligent conclusions when I study a subject or dive into some topic or other.

A truly ignorant person is one who lacks problem solving and research skills and is not adept at thinking a thing through using logic. Not surprisingly, such people are usually ruled by dogma and cliche and rarely exhibit an original thought or idea. They tend to go along to get along.

As Pink Floyd sings, "Hey teacher! Leave those kids alone!

Needless to say it is a complex issue.

By and large people's positions on marijuana simply reflect the larger society's position, which is that it's a dangerous drug and is, therefore, illegal. What's more to say? The guys in London or Washington or Ottawa, they know best.

Yet for those of us who have used marijuana we know just how patently false the official position is and hence we do not abide its ignorance. Part of the problem in trying to explain marijuana to a non-user is it's essentialy impossible to convey the experience in words, sort of like trying to explain sex to a six year-old, "Gee, daddy, is it like the fourth of July, or what? The kid isn't emotionally or physiogically equipped to apprehend the meaning.

Same with those who have never experienced a marijuana high.

I remember back in the 60's when many people were turning on to pot the first time, all it took was one joint and they were convinced. The experience was the best "salesman" of all. And this remains the case today. The legislators who write the laws don't have the experience of the substance, so they're writing laws about something they know little about, or even nothing about, save perhaps for a few agenda-created studies that bad mouth the drug.

You can explain the facts of the matter all day to a non-user but they're not going to get it ... because there's an emotional aspect to appeciating the facts, and lacking this emotional component, they're not equipped to "get it." So, they fall back to their dogma. What you've really gotta do with such people is get them high if you can, because once they have the experience, they become much more open to the facts. In nearly all cases, if you can't get them high ya gotta forget them and go about your way and let them suffer their fates.

I will turn 75 years of age in about a week. I smoked my first marijuana when I was 12 years old, and I have used it pretty much since, on again off again now and again, but at a pretty steady pace. I have grown my own for the past 35 years. That all sums to about 63 years of use. Okay, I still have ten fingers and ten toes and my mind is fairly sound and I'm in what my doctor describes as good health. I feel good and suffer nothing healthwise that would indicate the doc might be wrong. Everything works as intended, as it always has. I'm careful with my diet and am an active persona, running a small ranch deep in the wildernss mountains of British Columbia, working my butt to the bone nearly every day, lifting, pulling, yarding, pushing, heaving, hammering, sawing, erecting, dismantling, throwing, and moving shit around just to keep the fences up and the water system working and hay in the mangers.

I am living, breathing proof that marijuana is not a "dangerous" drug. I once rode a motorcycle from San Francisco to Guatemala and back whilst high on weed. I've driven and ridden hundreds of thousands of miles on the highways and byways of North America ... accident free; climbed any number of high peaks stoned and never fallen off; ran many a wild river in watercraft of all kinds and never drowned; and so on.

I do NOT use my chainsaw whilst stoned nor throw hammer or use a tablesaw or a skil saw or chop wood. Stoned isn't the province of linear activities where some degree of precision is in order and a lack of it can cause blood to flow or bones to crack. I don't want the guy piloting the commerial airliner I'm flying on to be stoned, nor the traindriver or the ferry operator. Stoned has its proper provinces, these are not among them.

As for religion, well, that's a whole other ballgame, but again, it begins in early childhood and the degree to which one ends up abiding the dogma and failing to think things through objectively for themselves is probably set in those early years of our upbringing. Some do manage to blast through when they become adults and experience epiphanies that surge them on to new knowledge and insight, to become free of their dogmas. Lucky for them, good for them.

I've been an atheist since before I can remember.

Ignorance can be tolerated ... up to the point where it causes pain and suffering in others or injustice, then it has to be confronted and shut down or obviated or curtailed in some manner.