I'm guessing you've probably heard the old saying, "ignorance is bliss" right? Most people sit around thinking, why would I want to be ignorant, that would make me stupid wouldn't it? Well you are probably stupid to begin with if you're having this conversation with yourself, but no, ignorance is not stupidity. You are not stupid for having a lack of knowledge, just uneducated. Here's the problem though; when one (lets say me in this case) wants to try and educate said ignorant person, nine times out of ten they will think that they know more than you. This is what makes you stupid. Here's a great example that occurred at work the other day (this actually got me fairly riled up). Some how or another, we got around to talking about oil, and how it wasn't going to be around forever. My co-workers were under the impression that when oil ran out, the world would be fine. WRONG! Life as we know it would collapse. Why? Because big oil is buying out all rights to anything being made as an alternative energy source. Now my co-workers were right to think that there are alternative energy sources being made or that are already made, but the problem is that it's not being put into production! So I repeatedly asked, what do you think will happen when oil runs out? Do you honestly think everything will be okay? I received varying answers, one being that we're sitting on so much oil that it won't matter in our life times. This I'm not so sure about, but just for the sake of argument I then asked, "what about your children?" A silence washed over this co-worker and I accepted it as his defeat. Sadly, a more annoying and even more ignorant co-worker (which I think is a very cool guy actually, just sadly uneducated) spoke up and kept on arguing that everything will be fine because there are alternatives. I then asked again, how will we put these alternatives into place after oil has run out? Are we magically going to be able to run our millions of cars, planes, or other forms of transportation to ship these materials? What about our way of life as it currently stands? What will we heat or houses with, light our stoves with, or simply keep the lights on with? Everything major in our nation and around the world runs off of oil, crude and natural. We won't be able to recover simply from a catastrophic event such as having no more oil just because there are alternative energy sources being found. They MUST be in place before we run out. Unfortunately my ignorant co-worker did not like this view and disregarded it as being a crazy conspiracy theorist (mainly for saying big oil buys patents and rights to alternative energy out). Luckily one co-worker was actually on my side which made the conversation a little more tolerable. This my friends, is why ignorance is bliss though. These people have fooled themselves into believing that everything will be okay because they are used to everything being done for them by someone else. I understand how they feel, I wish I could still feel the same way. Sadly, life just is not that easy for me anymore. The glass is not only half empty anymore, but someone came along and drank the rest up entirely. This is not to say there is no hope left, but please people, if not for anyone's sake but your own, pull your head out of your ass and find out what's going on around you. Who knows, you might just find that knowing about the world around you is important and interesting.
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Just something for anyone out there reading this to chew on. This does happen to be my first blog post, so yay to me! Hopefully this reaches a few people that enjoy and appreciate it.
Kyle (aka Shadow)
I agree with your basic premiss even if a few of the details are a bit off. There are things all of us can do ourselves right now, especially in a place like NM. No one can buy the sun and with a little research and ingenuity it is not insanely expensive to use solar energy. We can adapt our cars right now to use natural gas which we have have enough of in the USA alone to last us for over 200 years. What's also great about that is that we do not even have to invest in a lot of new infrastructure since most homes already have natural gas and existing gasoline station could be adapted without a crazy huge expense. The wind is also free and wind mills can be made for homes and apartments for a reasonable amount. These are just a few examples of some things we can all do as individuals.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'd really like to know Kyle is who "drank the rest of the stuff in your glass?" You talk like you were given some kind of really raw deal. Do you not have a roof over your head? Food to eat? Clothes to wear? Games to play? A car to drive? An opportunity to have an education? Do you not have people in your live that love you and would do anything for you? Who or what has taken or tried to take away any of these thing? I submit that whether you choose to see it or not that your glass is still at least half full. Just take a step or two back and take another look son!