Is This the Age of Ignorance?

When authorities are announcing inflation is contained and you buy bread for six dollars a loaf doesn’t it register that something is wrong? When a presidential candidate runs on and is elected on a platform of changing a free country into a deteriorating socialist boondoggle shouldn’t this be an indication knowledge is disappearing? When foreign policy is coupled with billions of dollars given away when the treasury is running dry, by what standard can we look at the policies and procedures as rational?

It has been a long march from the days of the promise of the founding of this nation to the ever descending slide into the past failures exemplified by rising empires that collapsed. This knowledge of the failures of the past should be the stepping stones to avoidance of repetition but instead we see a belief that somehow if we do what the failed have done we will somehow end up differently. A good example is the current European crisis that is inevitably headed our way. Everyone knows that spending more money than you have will eventually bankrupt you. Yet politicians tell the voters they will receive benefits if they vote for them that will not cost them anything. The voters in spite of their knowledge of how bankruptcy happens mindlessly vote the same people back in office or someone so similar they would fit in the same shoes. What explains this rush to nonsense except ignorance?

A partial explanation of the cause of this ignorance is the belief fostered by those in the pulpit and those in ivory towers and yes those in Hollywood that fantasy is equivalent to reality. Most people know that it is impossible for animals to be herded in pairs onto a boat and kept for several days without food ( particularly predators) yet when they hear a passionate charlatan demand they accept such a lie they willingly bow their heads and rationalize it really doesn’t matter because faith demands they believe in spite of their knowledge. This is the seed of ignorance. When the professor demands adherence to his views to pass a course this is the same approach and leads to more ignorance and less critical thinking. When a movie is produced that is so outrageously false and unbelievable such as Avatar with a subtle message of peace and harmony associated with the primitive you should ask yourself is political distortion the real function of art?

Back when the information was not allowed by way of the dictates of the church or the illiteracy of the masses there may have been an excuse for making repetitious mistakes, but in this age of the internet and relative freedom how can such ignorance be ignored? Perhaps you say it is because there is so much information no one knows what to believe? If this is true what does that say about our ability to sort information into the categories of true or false? That relates to the above distortions of thinking, the role of faith and fantasy that has left us with equal possibilities of belief and knowledge. Information is useless if it cannot be processed into true or false.

The financial crisis of the world is not going to just go away even though the wish of politicians for a spurt of growth to raise revenues and continuance of their spending for political pandering is uttered incessantly. It is only the reduction of subsidization that will stop the spending and debt. That is unacceptable to those who seek political power. The power seekers want to impose their whims on the people willing to support them and delude themselves that they are doing something morally justified. Their corrupt moral code of altruism allows them to delude themselves and they never question their motives, their actions or their results. They only show remorse if they get caught.

Ignorance in the past has not produced any progress and it will not produce any today. The age of innovation occurred and like the mistakes of the past we are ignoring what made it possible. Men were free and could make profits and the incentive to prosper and create was alive and well. Now men cower at the hovering specter of the thieves with the power of legalized robbery ready to pounce on that which they cannot produce but can confiscate. Who wants to enrich a bloated arrogant thug?

Is there no hope? Not as long as voices who know better remain silent. If all that is listened to is the false promises of those who seek popularity the results will not change. The pattern of withdrawal will continue until the world revolts. This may emerge on a small island or a village but somewhere there will be voice that speaks the truth and is heard. Somewhere, sometime just as the discovery of fire speared to those who were willing to understand its nature and utility so too will there arise a champion for capitalism that will convey a message that begins a renaissance. The dark ages that precede this will pose misery and danger for who knows how long….as long as ignorance prevails.