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Metaignorance
Posted by Jeffrey Ellis Apr 13
I’ve coined a new term. It’s not a Portmanteau - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:The_Gerry-Mander_Edit.png" class="image"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/The_Gerry-Mander_Edit.png/220px-The_Gerry-Mander_Edit.png"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/9/96/The_Gerry-Mander_Edit.png/220px-The_Gerry-Mander_Edit.png like brunch, gaydar, mulletard, or sarcastobitch, which are my very favorite kinds of words (because (a) fun wordplay time! and (b) “portmanteau” sounds vaguely snobbish and superior), but it’s a good enough word nonetheless. The Thinker hereby instructs you to add this word to your vocabulary and begin using it immediately.
Here it is:
Metaignorance (mê’tä-íg’ner-ens), noun. The state of being unaware of how much one doesn’t know; an ignorance of one’s own level of ignorance.
Sometimes metaignorance can be in the form of a simple misconception. Or rather, misconceptions can be fueled by metaignorance. For example, consider the common misconception that the phases of the moon are caused by the earth’s shadow. (The moon’s phases are NOT caused by the earth’s shadow. If you think they are, see here to get edjumacated on the subject.) It never ceases to amaze me how many people suffer from this misconception. All you have to do is look up in the sky when both the sun and the moon are visible at the same time. The sudden realization that the earth isn’t sitting up there between the two, blocking the sun from shining on the moon, but rather is firmly planted beneath your feet, should immediately dispel the misconception that the earth’s shadow causes the phases of the moon.
It’s best to say “I don’t know what causes the moon’s phases.” You’re ignorant, but you are aware of and willing to admit your ignorance. It would also be acceptable to be aware of your own ignorance but make up some bullshit answer just to mess with somebody’s mind. Hell, not only acceptable but admirable. But most people who are completely wrong about what causes the moon’s phases are metaignorant: their misconception is fueled by the fact that they are completely unaware of their own ignorance. This unawareness or unwillingness to admit their ignorance subconsciously prods them to make (wrong) assumptions in order to fill the void in their knowledge.
One might hypothesize that there is even a metametaignorance — a lack of awareness that one is metaignorant — but I think that might be getting redundant. If someone is unaware of their ignorance, I think we can safely assume an infinite regression whereby they are unaware of their unawareness of their ignorance, and they are unaware of that unawareness, and so on, ad infinitum. Therefore we can regard metaignorance as subsuming all higher levels of (meta)n-ignorance.
Here are a few more examples of metaignorance I’ve personally encountered. In approximate chronological order.
1. A high school science teacher once told our class, during a lecture on centripetal force, that the reason we’re held down to the earth is because it’s spinning so fast. Yes, you read that correctly, but let me say it again because I was laughing the first time and may have mistyped. The reason we’re held down to the earthBAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA — sorry, did it again — is because it’s spinning so fast. It’s scary that the school district ever let this guy NEAR a science class. But it’s also scary that I immediately glanced around at my fellow students to exchange a quick shared expression of “WTF” only to find none of the other students fazed in the slightest at what the teacher had just said. I hope it’s because they were not paying attention.
2. During my senior year at the University of Cincinnati, I was working on a research project in the aerospace lab and ran out of thermal resistors. In the process of trying to locate some more, I got into an argument on the phone with some kid working at Radio Shack who was just positive that what I really needed were thermal fuses. So strong and confident was he in his metaignorance that I simply could not argue any sense into him, and he kept condescendingly instructing me that a thermal fuse was the same thing as thermal resistor. Yes, there’s nothing a fledgling rocket scientist enjoys quite as much as being taken to task by a snot-nosed high school punk who thinks he knows dickall about scientific instrumentation because he works at Radio Shack. Believe me, if I had telekinetic powers his imploding skull would have made a jellied mess all over that store.
3. Somebody once thought I was a human resources manager because one of my master’s degrees is in human factors engineering. She wasn’t even aware she didn’t know what a human factors engineer was; she was just cueing off the word “human” in “human factors engineer.” Hence, she was metaignorant. Just for fun, I confirmed that I was indeed a human resources manager. I also convinced her that C3PO was a human resources manager too, even though his specialty was really human/cyborg relations, and that the Human League was a synthpop/new-wave group of recruiting specialists.
Okay, so what’s the takeaway from all this rambling?
First: It can be fun to mess with metaignorant people.
Second: Everybody is ignorant; nobody knows everything. But we should strive to have an awareness of the limits of our knowledge. The metaignorant are blissfully ignorant of their own lack of knowledge, and consequently are capable of wreaking far more havoc (or at least annoyance) than the merely ignorant. In particular, the metaignorant are more susceptible than the rest of us to have their opinions influenced by demagogues and propaganda artists, since they are not as able to distinguish between controversial and non-controversial assertions. More on this in a future post.
Posted by Jeffrey Ellis Apr 13
I’ve coined a new term. It’s not a Portmanteau - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:The_Gerry-Mander_Edit.png" class="image"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/The_Gerry-Mander_Edit.png/220px-The_Gerry-Mander_Edit.png"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/9/96/The_Gerry-Mander_Edit.png/220px-The_Gerry-Mander_Edit.png like brunch, gaydar, mulletard, or sarcastobitch, which are my very favorite kinds of words (because (a) fun wordplay time! and (b) “portmanteau” sounds vaguely snobbish and superior), but it’s a good enough word nonetheless. The Thinker hereby instructs you to add this word to your vocabulary and begin using it immediately.
Here it is:
Metaignorance (mê’tä-íg’ner-ens), noun. The state of being unaware of how much one doesn’t know; an ignorance of one’s own level of ignorance.
It’s best to say “I don’t know what causes the moon’s phases.” You’re ignorant, but you are aware of and willing to admit your ignorance. It would also be acceptable to be aware of your own ignorance but make up some bullshit answer just to mess with somebody’s mind. Hell, not only acceptable but admirable. But most people who are completely wrong about what causes the moon’s phases are metaignorant: their misconception is fueled by the fact that they are completely unaware of their own ignorance. This unawareness or unwillingness to admit their ignorance subconsciously prods them to make (wrong) assumptions in order to fill the void in their knowledge.
One might hypothesize that there is even a metametaignorance — a lack of awareness that one is metaignorant — but I think that might be getting redundant. If someone is unaware of their ignorance, I think we can safely assume an infinite regression whereby they are unaware of their unawareness of their ignorance, and they are unaware of that unawareness, and so on, ad infinitum. Therefore we can regard metaignorance as subsuming all higher levels of (meta)n-ignorance.
Here are a few more examples of metaignorance I’ve personally encountered. In approximate chronological order.
1. A high school science teacher once told our class, during a lecture on centripetal force, that the reason we’re held down to the earth is because it’s spinning so fast. Yes, you read that correctly, but let me say it again because I was laughing the first time and may have mistyped. The reason we’re held down to the earthBAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA — sorry, did it again — is because it’s spinning so fast. It’s scary that the school district ever let this guy NEAR a science class. But it’s also scary that I immediately glanced around at my fellow students to exchange a quick shared expression of “WTF” only to find none of the other students fazed in the slightest at what the teacher had just said. I hope it’s because they were not paying attention.
2. During my senior year at the University of Cincinnati, I was working on a research project in the aerospace lab and ran out of thermal resistors. In the process of trying to locate some more, I got into an argument on the phone with some kid working at Radio Shack who was just positive that what I really needed were thermal fuses. So strong and confident was he in his metaignorance that I simply could not argue any sense into him, and he kept condescendingly instructing me that a thermal fuse was the same thing as thermal resistor. Yes, there’s nothing a fledgling rocket scientist enjoys quite as much as being taken to task by a snot-nosed high school punk who thinks he knows dickall about scientific instrumentation because he works at Radio Shack. Believe me, if I had telekinetic powers his imploding skull would have made a jellied mess all over that store.
3. Somebody once thought I was a human resources manager because one of my master’s degrees is in human factors engineering. She wasn’t even aware she didn’t know what a human factors engineer was; she was just cueing off the word “human” in “human factors engineer.” Hence, she was metaignorant. Just for fun, I confirmed that I was indeed a human resources manager. I also convinced her that C3PO was a human resources manager too, even though his specialty was really human/cyborg relations, and that the Human League was a synthpop/new-wave group of recruiting specialists.
Okay, so what’s the takeaway from all this rambling?
First: It can be fun to mess with metaignorant people.
Second: Everybody is ignorant; nobody knows everything. But we should strive to have an awareness of the limits of our knowledge. The metaignorant are blissfully ignorant of their own lack of knowledge, and consequently are capable of wreaking far more havoc (or at least annoyance) than the merely ignorant. In particular, the metaignorant are more susceptible than the rest of us to have their opinions influenced by demagogues and propaganda artists, since they are not as able to distinguish between controversial and non-controversial assertions. More on this in a future post.
