Ignorance isn't bliss, it's just annoying

FelipeDBKO said:
It seems like the :p wasn't enough to make it clear that it was a joke... I need to think of new technologies to differ jokes from non-jokes. :p

By the way, I just remembered that here in a Brazil people pour table salt in Cururu/Cane toads for fun and, for those who have no clue of what happens next, keep in mind of their cutaneous respirations, their dependance on water, what happens when you pour salt in a living flesh wound and its hydrophily (although I'm not sure if this categorize more as ignorance or hypocrisy). Someone knows if this is common in other places?
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My dad said when he was younger, at his local fair, after all the prizes had been dealt, some kids would stick a hose in a pig's mouth and essentially water log it
 
FunkyGibbon said:
People who go through life thinking the Sun revolves around the Earth may have their issues, but in practice I find those who think it fine to mock them and look down on them to be the ones who truly have the most to learn.
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You may be onto something there
 
FunkyGibbon said:
People who go through life thinking the Sun revolves around the Earth may have their issues, but in practice I find those who think it fine to mock them and look down on them to be the ones who truly have the most to learn.
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His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System.

That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.

"You appear to be astonished," he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. "Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it."

"To forget it!"

"You see," he explained, "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, no to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."

"But the Solar System!" I protested.

"What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently; "you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work."
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- Dr John Watson, documenting a conversation with Sherlock Holmes in 'A Study in Scarlet'.

I'm not sure about Holmes' grasp of neuroscience, but if he can get through life without knowing about the nature of the solar system then so can most others.
 
I'm not saying people that don't know these things are bad people. In fact the girl in History class I referenced in my opening statement is an incredibly nice person but she's also ignorant. Sherlock Holmes was a great detective but he was also ignorant, at least according to Dr. John Watson, after all I have never met Mr. Holmes myself.
 
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Hipporex said:
I'm not saying people that don't know these things are bad people. In fact the girl in History class I referenced in my opening statement is an incredibly nice person but she's also ignorant. Sherlock Holmes was a great detective but he was also ignorant, at least according to Dr. John Watson, after all I have never met Mr. Holmes myself.
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Having introduced Sherlock to the conversation, I was astonished to learn at the Sherlock Holmes Museum at his former quarters, 221b Baker Street, that as few as one-third of visitors believe that Holmes was a historical figure, rather than a fictional character. I don't understand how two-thirds of people can be so misguided.

I signed the guest book as Professor Moriarty, just to confuse things further.
 
CGSwans said:
Having introduced Sherlock to the conversation, I was astonished to learn at the Sherlock Holmes Museum at his former quarters, 221b Baker Street, that as few as one-third of visitors believe that Holmes was a historical figure, rather than a fictional character. I don't understand how two-thirds of people can be so misguided.

I signed the guest book as Professor Moriarty, just to confuse things further.
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Or "got me" in this case. I see what you did there... ;). Also, when I read your post, I did re-call hearing that Sherlock Holmes was fake however, I, apparently being ignorant, chose ignore what I had heard and assumed he was real. I'll admit that was my bad. Still doesn't mean ignorance doesn't bug me though... Great now I'm annoyed by myself.
 
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FunkyGibbon said:
People who go through life thinking the Sun revolves around the Earth may have their issues, but in practice I find those who think it fine to mock them and look down on them to be the ones who truly have the most to learn.
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I went to a talk about the Flat Earth Society. The speaker didn't believe that the world was flat, but realised that many people couldn't prove that it wasn't. He had counter arguments to any complaints about his comments and some people got very cross when they couldn't prove him wrong.
 
Hipporex said:
  • In my history class, one of the questions on the final was how many states are there in the U.S.? One seventh of the class got it wrong. (Mind you these are kids who have lived most or all of there life in the U.S.)
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I should probably add to this statement that the teacher left a U.S. map on the wall so if they were really struggling they could of, you know, counted
 
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Hipporex said:
I should probably add to this statement that the teacher left a U.S. map on the wall so if they were really struggling they could of, you know, counted
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No, they couldn't. They could have counted. And I apologise for being a pedantic retired teacher.
Terry Thomas said:
Ignorance can be cured by education. There is no cure for stupidity!
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Very true. My late mother was not a stupid woman, but like most girls in the 1920s and 1930s, she had essentially no education in Science. Living right beside the River Dee, she had worked out her own, perfectly logical, theory about tides - when it was high tide on the English side of the river, it was low water on the Welsh bank, and vice versa :)
 
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