My Thoughts
Willful ignorance is a too-common condition afflicting a vast majority of the American population; of their own will, they ignore facts, sound advice, accurate information and the truth. Any attempt to educate, to enlighten, to elucidate is generally met with utter contempt. Their mind is made up, closed to new ideas, thoughts, facts, information, and truth. Such discomfiting knowing would clearly mess with their simple made-up minds; it is your mind, with its delusions, fabrications and conspiracy theories, that is messed up, not theirs.
There is simply no convincing some people; the willfully ignorant live, breathe, and walk among us. Until the tyrants come for them—and they will, they always do—the willfully ignorant will believe what they will while manically throwing stones at you (John 8:1-11).
What is a person to do? I am asked that question often enough that I should suggest an answer, which I suppose I might, so I will. First, what anyone thinks of me or you are none of my or your business. Let that sink in for a moment. Let them call you crazy or delusional or a conspiracy theorist. They are willfully ignorant by choice and anything you say or do will fail to convince and worse, will no doubt be considered an insult to their intelligence. Remind yourself: these are not stupid people, many are highly educated, with reams of paper on their walls attesting to their vaunted edumacation. What they think and believe does not matter, their ignorance betrays them, leave them to wallow in it.
It is the independent mind—those with the will to think, to reason, to learn, to seek and to come to know the truth—that is truly free; the willfully ignorant are but slaves to their own self-unknowing. Never try to free them from their self-enslavement, they must do so on their own initiative. They will fight you at every turn so ignore them.
This is nothing new, of course. Plato wrote of this, having Socrates describe a group of people who lived chained to a wall of a cave all their lives, facing a blank wall able to watch shadows projected on the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them. The shadows are their reality. Socrates explains how the philosopher (lover of wisdom) is like a slave who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not reality at all, for he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the manufactured reality that is the shadows. The chained people of the cave have no desire to leave, for they know no better life. When other people manage to break free of their chains, they discover their reality was not what they thought it was, they discover the sun, an analogy for the fire that man cannot see behind.
Never assume. Do not assume that those who are like-minded know what you know. Stay informed and spread the word. If you lose a “friend” or offend someone because you speak with truth and facts, they were never much a friend, now were they? Stand up for what is right and true and above all else stand up for God and country.
As Thomas Paine wrote, “These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
God bless the U.S.A.
Wake up America.
Just my thoughts for a Tuesday, for what it is worth.
