Ignorance is bliss


But it doesn't make you better than everyone - or anyone - else.

The United States has been an anti-intellectual zone for a long time. There are isolated pockets where that's not the case, but the populace at large seems to harbor a very active antipathy toward excellence and celebrate mediocrity. Especially when it's voluntary mediocrity. I suppose that makes a certain kind of sense; we reward those who make an effort to fit in. You like to think the pendulum swings, but so far it looks like it's still arcing up. I recently participated in a Usenet thread in which someone was insistent that he was right and everyone else was wrong based on a fact that stopped being true 30+ years ago. In short, he thought he was better than everyone else because he was ignorant.

Posted: Mon - December 5, 2005 at 08:08 AM          


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