Willful ignorance is a choice

In order to frame this article, I should probably define ignorance as the “lack of knowledge, education or awareness”. For example, I am not a medical doctor – I don’t claim to know how to operate on a brain tumor. It’s okay and, in fact, normal to be ignorant on a subject.

With the implementation of social media, whereby anyone can impart their opinions on the world, ignorance is continually on full display. Most of it is honest ignorance and a knee-jerk decision to respond emotionally to a topic, rather than do a few minutes of research to reduce the ignorance.

Willful ignorance, however, is a different animal. This is a phenomenon in which a person chooses to remain uneducated on a topic, for whatever reason. In this context we will discuss it as going beyond simple laziness to do a quick Google search, but rather a conscious choice to avoid being proven wrong in a narrative that must be upheld along, once again, party lines.

In pulling the thread further, this willful ignorance is driven by the current social normalization of all-or-nothing politics, in which the extreme party members on each side require those of us that are more moderate to choose a side and follow it blindly, to the extreme.

But of course, this stance leads to a complete inability to compromise, negotiate or resolve anything. It must be all-or-nothing, resulting in polar extremes that the majority of Americans probably don’t really want.

As we lead up to Election Day, citizens should register to vote and show up. Exercise that constitutional right to vote that our forefathers worked and died for so that we could have that option. But please also shed the notion that it has to be the extremes that we vote for. And our candidates, too, should feel empowered to choose à la carte policymaking that represents the majority of their constituents, rather than blindly toeing the party line on every topic of discussion.

Shawna Pfeiffer

Las Cruces