People fear the words “I don’t know.” We fear uttering these words when asked for answers. Instead of admitting the unthinkable we curve and dance around logic to make sure we still look smart with whatever answer we end up formulating. We elect people to run our nations who are experts at this artistically-friendly form of truth bending.
Science and technology are partly to blame for our relentless know-it-all mentalities. We run this planet, how could we not know something? But science is also what encourages us to be skeptical of what human culture constructs, which is exactly what I’m saying we need to do more of.
So many times in classes from the high school to collegiate level I have heard professors, students mostly, and academia as a whole, jump to wild conclusions simply because part of the puzzle is nonexistent in human knowledge. We may find these elusive answers to life someday, but why can’t we admit until then that we just do not know?
An increasingly required act for students is to be skeptical. Research it for yourself. This requirement has never really changed, but today where information sits at our fingertips, there is more bullshit to weed through. Don’t get frustrated and believe what is easy to believe. Slippery slopes are easy to coast on — the only problem is that they only spiral down and it’s a long way back to the top.
If we let ourselves fall into these tightly departmentalized ideals of how everyone should be categorized, or how information should be interpreted, or how people should go about being tolerant of each other then truth is going to fly right on past us, and we will never have noticed. Who knows, maybe instead of tolerating each other we could actually like each other someday.
I once walked out of a class on the first day when the professor — who thought it best to inform us what books were required the first day of class — assigned all literature written by her. Every book was bylined “Your Professor.” I was immediately skeptical of anything this professor was planning on teaching me. This is not studying holistically with multiple sources. One book by “Your Professor” — great! They need the morale booster. Five books? … I’ll take my brain elsewhere, it doesn’t need to be washed and picked clean. I didn’t return for Day 2.
I am not going to specifically say everything I think people are ignorant of because we all have our different degradations. We all have the answers we cling to because a reasonable answer is unknown. We make nicely packaged answers instead. We each have our own misconceptions either instilled in us from our upbringing or from a conclusion we came to on our own that lies challengingly in our heads, logic-less. They just sit there drenched in fallacy.
We are at a pivotal point in world history. This era will surely take a chapter or two to explain in the textbooks. Goals and the means to get them are shifting, many of which are seemingly good-intentioned, but we must always have questions and doubts about why ideas take particular forms. Certainty is frequently filled with holes.
No longer should we march to our desks, jobs or graves apathetically. If something has ever seemed just not quite right or settling, then maybe it’s time to interrogate it and dig your knife into the problem. See ignorance for what it really is.
Joanne Tucker is a senior physical anthropology major and the new editor in chief of the Daily 49er.