The Science of Confusion

Despite this somehow or another I _ nd myself teaching, either in a workshop, at a retreat, in a restaurant, in a maxi, and in print. Today I’m going to teach about ignorance. Just before the Christmas season began I wrote an impassioned article about just how inexcusable ignorance was in today’s world. I also wrote on the Oxford Dictionaries word of the year, post-truth. There is a trend of willful ignorance I’m still trying to wrap my head around and then I stumbled across it.

There is a science to the study of ignorance as well as a science behind keeping the average Kevin and Keisha in the dark and it’s name is Agnotology.

Agnotology is de_ ned as the study of wilful acts to spread confusion and deceit, usually to sell a product or win favour. Hard to believe isn’t it? I’m usually dismissive of conspiracy theories but it’s disconcerting to think that there are individuals and organisations that are creating ignorance for their own bene_ t. Don’t get me wrong I’ve not been labouring under the assumption that the world is full of rainbows and roses. After more than a decade as a practising social worker, I can assure you I am more than aware of the grimy underbelly of our society. The only conclusion I can draw is that we send children to school and educate them, then work just as hard to ensure they become ignorant as adults.

This study of the science of ignorance started when Stanford professor, Robert Proctor, began studying documents related to the 1994 American congressional hearings on the tobacco industry. He realised ignorance is not always as simple as the absence of knowledge or something forgotten but it is also cultural and can be engineered and used as a political tool. There is power in keeping people ignorant. Radical terrorist groups are really good at making use of that power but it’s not limited to universally agreed on nasties like ISIS, even regular special interest groups are guilty of same. Campaigns of manipulated information and blatant untruths are rife. It doesn’t take much effort to sniff out some of the nonsense but more often than not it is insidious and not so easy to spot.

This is not about learning to read and write, literacy is a tool that we all require to be functional. Rather this is about diligence in seeking the truth and dedication to facts. One thing that most education systems fail to teach these days is critical thinking. Quite frankly it seems they stopped teaching critical thinking a while ago. Recent trends in education seem to demand rote learning leaving our youth and most adults unequipped to navigate this posttruth world being run by demagogues and organisations skilled in agnotology. Educators and parents have failed to impart the knowledge that will let youth be able to tell a snake oil salesman or a charlatan from someone telling the truth. We have dark days ahead if we can’t _ x this situation. Anyone with an eye on the news can see history is repeating itself. We’ve been taught that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it and while we haven’t forgotten what has happened in the past, it seems we’re powerless to stop it. These days the voices of reason and logic are very faint and are being drowned out by the sound of empty barrels.

It’s clear there is collective blame here, people are vulnerable when they don’t understand something. A policy, an abstract concept, an economic principle, a philosophy that is important to know but has not been adequately explained by more traditional and objective sources, leaves people vulnerable to purveyors of misinformation. It’s the responsibility of educators, the clergy, the media (yes, even me) to share information, to put the truth in the hands of people on the street. The last party to shoulder the blame is you, ensuring you are not left ignorant falls on you. Google is a search engine, it can’t tell you what is true from what is false. Don’t trust everything you read online, the same applies to the printed word. Truth is found in multiple sources and double checking the facts, it is not a single click of the mouse away.

It’s not easy, it’s not convenient and often the truth is the last thing we want to hear, but it is necessary. To be frank, I hate to think I’m being manipulated and misled by anyone, especially nameless, faceless people scheming in some dark room.

I know it’s a new year and all and I’m not trying to be a pessimist, but with all the talk of state sponsored cyber warfare and misinformation swaying elections, I’ll be even more wary of the things I believe. The consequences of ill informed decisions made in 2016 will be experienced this year and in those to come. Let’s make more of an effort to be better informed and not leave ourselves vulnerable to misinformation to the bene_ t of the unscrupulous. It will take the wisdom of sages past to rectify the problems of today, if only we can see things for what they are.

If we don’t, we’ll be reliving nightmares we’ve only read about in history books.