If ignorance is the lack of knowledge and stupidity its avoidance, which is more rampant these days?

Answer 1

People in general are comfortable in avoiding the hard questions of life. The more you know, the harder the questions become, but the the more knowledgeable you become. There are too few of the true life-long learners who want to learn everything they can. Too many questions are answered using "opinion" and not fact, thus the raging nincompoopery exists in this world.

Answer 2

By rampant, I will assume you mean something like "does the most harm," because, certainly, with the great number of things that are known today, we often "avoid" or "lack" knowledge of a GREAT deal of things on regular basis with the justification of specialization of labor. However, this is very, very bad. The problem starts at the top, with politics. Politicians get elected by looking good, being charismatic, but mostly by raising money so they can advertize as though they were even more good looking, charismatic, and/or well-qualified. As such, they get money by businesses, the only things making really big contributions, so that politicians will make laws that favor businesses. But, this hurts the individual on fundamental levels. Compound with this problem that the average person knows less and less about more and more (specialization of labor) and we may find that we are growing too ignorant and stupid to properly weigh our checks and balances. Now, honestly, I would say the avoidance of knowledge is more dangerous, because when we try to avoid finding out the truth, we reduce our rational capacity to a game of chance. When we simply don't have the knowledge, we hold that someone else has expertise in that field, and therefore they can make up for others' ignorance. Also, since we are not avoiding the knowledge, we may pursue this knowledge if we consider it necessary. This does not go well in the political system; bipartisanship and campaign financing elict a poor circumstance for politicians to be thinking of how to make the best decisions for everyone. In other words, the described aspects of society INHIBIT the functionality of the political system, and nobody even noticed because anyone who says anything about it is not going to be supported by the Democrats or the Republicans (they do not want to stop getting free money for being in office!).

Stupidity, then. Though I must admit I do not whole-heartedly accept that ignorance is just a lack of knowledge whereas stupidity is its' avoidance.

Answer 3

Ignorance is not just the lack of knowledge but the lack of seeking knowledge. There is plenty of information out there on many topics, true ignorance is what happens when someone chooses not to access it. So I would say that ignorance is more rampant, how many people will claim that they knew what was right after they have done something wrong?

Answer 4

Ignorance is often unintentional--like a child in California being ignorant of a storm in Indonesia.

Stupidity is more dangerous, I think. Before the "information age," ignorance might have been considered more rampant.

But there should be no excuse for stupidity. Stupidity, like someone said in an earlier reply, is having knowledge or having access to knowledge, but misusing it.

Answer 5

Hi!

I really think it is ignorance ..... I am appalled at the lack of information
that is available .... in addition I am
equally upset that there is not more
emphasis on the continuance of
tradition...... there are many tradi-
tions that are stabilizers, like local
clothing rather than world-wide
conformity to a certain style, or
local food rather than McD's which ...
I confess people seem to love, and
I concede that point .... but in the past
there were manners that were nice,
and lost ....so, speaking of ignorance,
if we knew more about the good things
of the past, maybe there would be a more
seamless inflow of information.....just natural inflow ... as it is, we must dig for
information to establish cultural values,
for example ....

....my mother used to say that the world
wars spoiled everything .... and perhaps there is truth there...

.... anyway, onward and upward, thank
you for your question, and have a lovely day!

Peace & Love

Answer 6

Definitely the avoidance of knowledge. People nowadays think its cool to not deal with world news and science and indulge in petty gossip. Teenagers in school backbite teachers and tease others and call them nerds who may later succeed in life. All they know is how to operate a mobile phone. Avoidance is definitely considered cool these days and all the hardwork some people do wont even get recognised.

Answer 7

well... they are kind of similar in a way. Break down the word ignorance. Its more like Ignore-ance. To ignore knowledge is to by means - avoiding. So i guess you can say either or but if you want to use an exact word - 'Avoidance' is your best bet.

Answer 8

ignorance is a lack of knowledge,BUTstupidity is have knowledge and not using it ,avoidance is most rampant.

Answer 9

Either way, we are not better off!!

However, the worst is the arrogance of partial knowledge, which is what is the most rampant today!!!

Answer 10

ignorance is most prevelant, but it is the kind that is fostered by stupidity......

people are ignorant through thier own stupidity.