September 26, 2019
How to Escape Ignorance and the Dunning-Kruger effect
Most great thinkers in history share a common oversight: they have not talked enough about idiocy; that kind of bottomless, malevolent ignorance that plagues the world. How to escape ignorance is something philosophers haven’t tackled, and that has come back to bite us all.
With the possible exception of the delightfully pessimistic Plato, philosophers through the miserable centuries have talked about truth and ethics having a rather idealistic picture of humanity in mind.
Even Marx, who talked about the responsibility of philosophers to actually change the world instead of simply interpreting it, underestimated popular idiocy.
Let’s not fool ourselves, being poor or working-class is a shield against neither ignorance nor malice.
Before you continue reading, here’s an obvious warning: I offer no solutions in this post. How audaciously, unthinkably preposterous it would have been to claim an answer to the question the likes of Marx or Plato failed to address.
Although the post is titled “How to Escape Ignorance and the Dunning-Kruger effect”, the text is descriptive rather than prescriptive. At best, it’s a virtual tap on the back; at worst, little more than stating the obvious.
What Is the Dunning-Kruger Effect
Let’s start with something lighter. The Dunning-Kruger effect is basically a catch-22 kind of thing. It essentially states that idiotic people are too stupid to realize they’re stupid – and sometimes stupidity pairs with malevolence to boot.
Well, that’s the catchy way of putting it, anyway.
More precisely, the Dunning-Kruger effect – named after David Dunning and Justin Kruger of Cornell University – affirms that people overestimate their level of competence, as a result of their lack of critical thinking.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is the dark brother of the impostor syndrome, where someone underestimates their level of competence.
The thing is, how to escape ignorance and the Dunning-Kruger effect?
Escape Ignorance: Gotcha! It’s All about Semantics
As I did warn you earlier, this post won’t tell you how to escape ignorance. What I didn’t tell you is that there are two ways (plus one) of semantically approaching the sentence “how to escape ignorance”.
- This post won’t tell you how to escape ignorance if you are an ignorant person. That’s the very concept of the Dunning-Kruger effect. I’d be wasting my breath.
- This post can’t tell you how to escape (others’) ignorance if you are not an ignorant person, because there’s basically only one way to do it, and – as a comparatively non-ignorant person – you probably know it already: Remove yourself from the context/company of ignorant people.
- Ah, this is the “plus one” way of semantically approaching it. I emphasized the word comparatively just above to indicate how relative this can be. And so, this post can’t tell you how to escape any ignorance (yours or others’) if I am more ignorant than you are (regardless of, or rather in addition to the above two possibilities).
“What Are You Blabbering about, You Fool?”
If you’re wondering what’s the point of this article, let me remind you what I said further above: Although the post is titled “How to Escape Ignorance and the Dunning-Kruger effect”, at best it’s only a virtual tap on the back; at worst, little more than stating the obvious.
The grand tragedy of the human experience is that, as social beings, we cannot effectively isolate ourselves from ignorant people. In some contexts we can. If you find this post entirely nonsensical and ignorant, you can easily navigate away from the page.
But in most situations, it’s impossible. You can’t isolate yourself from your colleague who believes all his problems can be blamed on Antonio from south of the border, or that it’s acceptable to destroy people’s lives just because you can’t see them. Day after day, you have to put up with stupidity and mediocrity.
So, Can You Escape Ignorance?
No. Yes. Maybe. I don’t know.
As I implied just above, you can escape ignorance in some contexts; not so in others. Still, here are a few… tips to help you.
How to Escape Others’ Ignorance
- Remove all non-essential interaction with such people. I don’t use social media, I very rarely comment online, and I absolutely refuse to be around idiots in social gatherings.
- Avoid places that attract idiocy: mainstream media, tabloids, social media, and any bourgeois get-together.
- Give up the idea you can help them. Call me a nihilistic, grumpy old man, but I think it’s a lost cause. Escaping ignorance is a personal, individual process.
Which brings us to something you can control.
How to Escape Your Ignorance
- Read. Try to read quality literature, but any reading is great – if not for any other reason, because it lets you see what works and what doesn’t, in writing and society alike.
- Challenge your own preconceptions. “Am I really right to think A?” “Have I been wrong to consider B ignorant?” “Is my belief C justified?”
- Beyond preconceptions, don’t be afraid to ask the difficult, what-if questions. Face your fears. “What if I died tomorrow?” “What if my son died?” “What if I lost my job?” “What if my husband/wife left me?”
The only way to be free of ignorance – to the extent it’s possible – is to understand where, how, and most importantly why you put up with it.
2 Comments
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“all his problems can’t be blamed on Antonio from south of the border” – I believe you meant CAN.
I’ll be flip, and remind you that, by definition, half of humanity is below average.
I’m not so proud right now of the half that is above average; it seems we should be better at managing the planet for everyone.
We’ve had an unexpected death here at the retirement community; the questions, the facing of fears, happens every day. We plan as well as possible – knowing no more of the future than anyone else. And those are the questions novelists should ask.
Can/can’t corrected, thanks!
You’re absolutely right about the average part — George Carlin put a funny spin on it, when he said “imagine how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even more stupid”
As for the half that is above average, that is a very pertinent point. It has troubled me too. It’s possible that it’s a result of other character traits that are at play — it’s a common (and sad) pattern, that those who are below average compensate by being louder. I’ve mentioned Bertrand Russell several times on this blog, and for good reason: “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.”
Thanks for your comment, you always bring a new dimension to the posts. I really appreciate it!