Ignorance breeds fear

Questions.Why are humans so afraid of other opinions and views? Why do we refuse to open our eyes and see someone else’s perspective? Why do we jump to defend our own opinion when someone challenges our viewpoint? What are we scared of?

These questions and more have been playing on mind for some time now, and the conclusion I have come up with is that we are all afraid of changing. Change brings instability, even though the end result may be a betterment for us as individuals. It is safer for us to be ignorant than to become enlightened, for to change one’s view implicitly implies that our original stance was wrong. And as humans, we hate to be wrong.

But, is “being wrong”, a wrong thing anyway? Does “wrong” have to equate with us making a mistake or believing in something that is not correct? Is not everything a matter of perspective?

Take for example when we believed that the world was flat. Our ancestors confined their “world” within the limits they set themselves, whether it was the distant mountain range or the neighbouring sea. Anything beyond that limit simply did not exist, nor could anything exist. To attempt to cross that self-imposed “correct” limit, would result in one falling off the face of the Earth. The question that was rarely asked was “so if we fall off the face of the Earth, where do we fall onto or into?” To think about this would result in not only realising that one could possibly be wrong [i.e. the world is not flat] but also that the world may be bigger than they actually were led to believe.

It took a few people to challenge this flat-earth belief and explore beyond the “known world”, and as a direct consequence, people’s perceptions change. Mind you, even when the Classical Greek philosophers scientifically proved that the world was actually a globe rather than flat, their ideas were ridiculed. Why? Because it went contrary to millennia of popular belief that the earth was flat, and that if the world was actually a globe, then it was likely that they were “upside down”.

The same applies today, despite our vast advancements in technology. We can place people on the moon and undertake inter-species transplants, but our ignorance in other areas are the same, if not worse than those of our ancestors.

It is easier for many to believe that gay people are a danger to society, and that gay marriage will see our civilisation collapse or that AIDS is some almighty deity’s way of cleansing humanity of a “disease called homosexuality”. It is easier to see Aljazeera as a radical islamic television station than to actually sit and watch it, and draw our own conclusions. It’s so much easier to sit silently and listen to our politicians tell us what is right than to make up our own minds on whether we find “the evil enemy”.

It is easier to conform to the [current] norm than to challenge it, for our world is then “stable and safe” within our minds, and we can sleep easily at nights knowing we are part of the majority.

And that’s the sad thing with humanity. We prefer to be ignorant of another perspective or to challenge the current viewpoint - whether that of our own or those around us - than to try and expand our personal development. Ignorance of what may be out there simply allows us to live within the fears we have enveloped ourselves in.

To discover that gays are just normal human beings, that AIDS is a disease that knows no sexual boundaries, that Aljazeera is actually more factual and more diverse in the opinions it broadcasts than CNN or the BBC, or that going to war with the “evil enemy” is actually due to us fighting because our petrol is at stake and not because of a madman running that “evil country”, will challenge our ignorance. By challenging our ignorance, it may enlighten us to the point we are no longer part of the “majority” but instead become a “minority” member ourselves.

And that is even sadder. All the great people - both in the past and the present - are those that have challenged the norm. Whether we look at Bill Gates, Alexander the Great, any major religious leader, or the guys that founded Google. They challenged the current norm and didn’t allow their ignorance and fear of the unknown inhibit them.

Where will you stand? Part of the ignorant fearful majority, or one of the few who will challenge the norm and hopefully become a more open, tolerant and enlightened person?

James
www.jebadel.com