Ahh, I got it! Wilful ignorance, common sense, and cartoons

Oct 14, 2010 09:33

Some of you may have been reading (and some of you may have no context at all because they've been LJ-only posts) my recent diatribe on people who are either ignorant, or worse, wilfully ignorant and pretending to not understand the world around them.  Over the last week or so, I've wondered about ideology, religion, and all these sorts of things that keep people seeing what I consider to be objective reality.

Of course, any physicist and/or philosopher may refute the notion of 'objective' reality, so I need to keep my objectivisms at bay, I think.  How presumptuous of me to assume that reality is indeed an objective phenomenon.

Nevertheless, there is a class of people who, in my opinion, wilfully ignore global warming and other facts that bounce off their ideology.  This may be a function of a couple of things.
  • A lack of chemistry education (actually, non-perjorative ignorance)
  • A lack of biology education
  • Wilful ignorance due to upbringing, tradition, world-view, economic motive, etc.
OK.  So, this post is for those who dispute physics, chemistry, or biology as an objective reality.  I find that it is, and I've never seen or experienced an interventionist god nor a miracle.  I will fess up to my own ignorance there.  Fair is fair.

This video combines so many of my favourite things all in one place: physics, chemistry, biology, Robert Krulwich (a PhD in law... where his science background comes from is beyond me) who is a commentator on Frontline (my favourite show) as well as a cohost of Radio Lab, my favourite podcast,  and Odd Todd.  I excitedly await the next installments.

So, again, in my thick-headed, having-a-hard-time-not-speaking-down-to-people, arrogant, come-on-man-wake-up, what-the-hell-are-you-a-child? way, I think I've figured this out.  In order to talk to juveniles on subjects that they may not have learned about, a great way to entertain and explain things is through cartoon.  It is a perfect medium for this!

To me, chemistry and physics and math are (dreaded term here) common sense.  But that loaded term, in my opinion and experience, is A) bullshit and B) arrogant.  If, and only if, our public/private education system were coordinated in a real way, and all children cared about school and took the same classes and learned the same way I did (I'm an audio learner: I do great in classrooms; most people are visual learners), only then could I assume that everyone has training and a background in remedial chemistry and physics.  That assumption is not a fair one to make, though. Note: I only took one year of chemistry.  I found it very challenging, but it is, by far, one of the most useful classes I have ever taken in my whole life to understand the world around me.  If you've never taken chemistry or physics, the world is a much bigger mystery to you than it needs to be.  

science, greenhouse gases and global warming, psychology

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