Ignorance and Fear
Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2023 4:33 pm
I've been thinking a lot lately about the relationship between ignorance and fear.
I'm sure we've all had the experience of feeling anxiety about some future event because it was mostly unknown, then after having gone through it, thinking to yourself, "Well that wasn't so bad."
I couldn't tell you the number of times in college where I'd see or hear about some topic coming up in one of my classes, wondering how well I'll understand it, being taught the concept, and thinking, "Why was I anxious about that? It's easy."
The answer, or conclusion I've come to, is that it was just simple fear of the unknown. This experience has happened over and over, so much so that rather than feeling anxiety over the unknown, I now feel a sense of excitement over conquering new topics. They say that knowledge is power, and that is true simply because fear tends to paralyze people. We don't perform as well when we are fearful as when we're relaxed. Part of the reason we become good at things with practice is that each time we do something, we become more knowledgeable about it and the original fear disappears.
I teach occasional classes for work and one thing I often tell my students is not to worry about new topics. "Once I explain them, you'll wonder what you were nervous about." Up until today, I'd only really thought about this in the context of education and trying new things. It occurs to me that it has far wider implications.
I've often wondered why people are willfully ignorant. What do they think they gain by not knowing things? What I don't wonder about is why the GOP says things to encourage ignorance (e. g. education is elitist), and that is because ignorant people are fearful people, and the GOP/right wing benefits by stoking fear. People are more likely to be bigoted toward certain races if they have little to no experience with them. You place someone in an environment with a bunch of people they aren't used to associating with, they will quickly adapt to that environment as they become more comfortable with what was previously unknown.
And sure, finding out things doesn't always make that topic better. Sometimes, news is bad. Here's the thing: it's better to be aware and actually knowledgeable about real problems than it is to fear problems that you only suspect are real.
I honestly believe that if we could reestablish the importance of education culturally, we could solve a ton of the fear based issues we face as a country. But that would require the GOP to start valuing expertise and education again, and that is counterproductive to their interest to retain power at all costs.
I'm sure we've all had the experience of feeling anxiety about some future event because it was mostly unknown, then after having gone through it, thinking to yourself, "Well that wasn't so bad."
I couldn't tell you the number of times in college where I'd see or hear about some topic coming up in one of my classes, wondering how well I'll understand it, being taught the concept, and thinking, "Why was I anxious about that? It's easy."
The answer, or conclusion I've come to, is that it was just simple fear of the unknown. This experience has happened over and over, so much so that rather than feeling anxiety over the unknown, I now feel a sense of excitement over conquering new topics. They say that knowledge is power, and that is true simply because fear tends to paralyze people. We don't perform as well when we are fearful as when we're relaxed. Part of the reason we become good at things with practice is that each time we do something, we become more knowledgeable about it and the original fear disappears.
I teach occasional classes for work and one thing I often tell my students is not to worry about new topics. "Once I explain them, you'll wonder what you were nervous about." Up until today, I'd only really thought about this in the context of education and trying new things. It occurs to me that it has far wider implications.
I've often wondered why people are willfully ignorant. What do they think they gain by not knowing things? What I don't wonder about is why the GOP says things to encourage ignorance (e. g. education is elitist), and that is because ignorant people are fearful people, and the GOP/right wing benefits by stoking fear. People are more likely to be bigoted toward certain races if they have little to no experience with them. You place someone in an environment with a bunch of people they aren't used to associating with, they will quickly adapt to that environment as they become more comfortable with what was previously unknown.
And sure, finding out things doesn't always make that topic better. Sometimes, news is bad. Here's the thing: it's better to be aware and actually knowledgeable about real problems than it is to fear problems that you only suspect are real.
I honestly believe that if we could reestablish the importance of education culturally, we could solve a ton of the fear based issues we face as a country. But that would require the GOP to start valuing expertise and education again, and that is counterproductive to their interest to retain power at all costs.