A Fierce Ignorance

 

I've always thought of the three wise monkeys above as the "Goody Goody Monkeys."  That's because my first memory of them is from a cartoon I saw many years ago.  The cartoon was made and shown in 1935, or so the Internet tells me.  I'm not old enough to have seen it at that time, but it was one of the many cartoons, new and old, which were featured on TV Saturday mornings during my long-ago youth.  I can even remember some of the song they sang:  "Speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil so; We're the Goody Goody Monkeys everywhere we go."  I can remember nothing else about the cartoon, but again the sometimes useful Internet tells me that it has to do with a devil tempting the unfortunate monkeys with a variety of things involving characters from famous and not so famous books.

I think they've come to be associated with ignorance.  Ignorance of evil, obviously enough.  But also ignorance of another kind; willful ignorance of anything disturbing or potentially harmful.  Of anything unsettling, or different.  Of anything we don't want to think about, in fact.

I've lamented the ignorance of these times often enough in this blog, but have to come think, in light of the deterioration taking place, that I've underestimated how ardently, how zealously ignorant we've become.

There are things we don't want to know, or don't want to know more about.  That has been the case for most of our history, in all probability.  It's an attitude which may have one of more causes.  "Ignorance is bliss" is a common saying.  Even the Stoics maintain we shouldn't let things beyond our control disturb us, and most which takes place is beyond our control.  The Stoics, though, also claim we should act virtuously as to things within our control, and wisely.  What we know and what we learn is in our control.  We can choose to be ignorant and remain ignorant.  Whether we should is something that we are to judge "according to nature."  I think that Stoicism requires that we know what it is that's beyond our control.  So, the Stoic would not be ignorant of such things, or necessarily seek to ignore them.  Instead, the Stoic would recognize them and treat them accordingly.

To be clear, the kind of ignorance I refer to is chosen.  A decision is made.  But with it is a decision to actively foster ignorance.  That kind of ignorance isn't merely chosen, it's pursued.  Not only do we imitate the good monkeys and close our eyes, mouths and cover our ears, but we seek to repress knowledge and information.  These days, we try to do so in great part by reference to conspiracies--claims are made, things take place not because there's good reason for them but because they're the result of efforts to discredit people and things we like.  Thus they're fake, like fake news and stolen elections.

So we pay no attention to them, but now we also do what we can to suppress them.  The slavery that's part of our history isn't something we want our children to be taught.  We want them to be taught that it was good for the slaves, really, in many respects.  Sources of information like some books shouldn't be read, according to some, but they're not content to refrain from reading them, they take steps to remove or ban them from libraries and schools.

The zealously ignorant want others to be ignorant as well.

We've seen this attitude and its results whenever a nation or society become totalitarian or autocratic.  Certain knowledge, books, people and conduct are banned.  Enforced ignorance is characteristic of revolutionaries and reactionaries whenever they have the power to impose it.

Sameness has a certain appeal for us, and we may be entering into one of those period when we long to be the same and follow, thoughtlessly, someone who tells us what to do.  What better way for that to happen than in circumstances where nothing is new or different, when there's nothing to be learned, nothing left to be known, or at least no way to learn or to know more?