'Tabula rasa' according to Christian Empiricist John Locke
suggests that all humans are born as 'Blank Slates' which would later be
informed by Experience through the use of their senses. In other words, we were
all born ignorant, empty, stupid and prone to idiocy. Our default setting at
birth was ignorance.
Nobody should have to apologize for being ignorant. No one
should have to hide in shame for processing external information about the
world improperly and obtusely. Unlike your digestive and reproductive organs,
you were not wired with an inbuilt encyclopedia. In other words, be comfortable
in your natural mental inadequacies.
One of the characteristics of nature is change. Everything
is perpetually in flux. Everything is in motion. Everything is in transition.
It is a universal law of nature and of physics. The Law of Change. The Law of
Motion. Constant.
In reality, in the grander scheme of things, nothing is
inert. Everything is in motion. Yes, everything is moving. You may think you
are static when taking that nap in your bedroom, but relative to the planet
Earth and other planets you are actually rotating around the star (Sun) at the
speed 30 kilometers per second or 67,000 miles per hour. In effect, while you
lie asleep you are speeding around the sun faster than a jumbo jet!
Moreover, even as you are in a state of rest, every atom in
your body, every sound wave/light wave travelling through your body are never
at rest.
Hence, in your physical state your motion and attendant
change is nonnegotiable. It is determined by the physics beyond your control.
This is why you age, grow wrinkles on your face and start losing appetite after
a while. This is not optional.
Unfortunately, your natural mental state (tabula rasa) isn't
subject to the same natural transitions. You don't automatically grow to know
Roman Numerals and set of natural numbers 1,2,3,4,5... the same way you know
your breathe. You don't suddenly grow the ability to write ABC the same way you
grow your first milk teeth. Physical states and progress are fixed by the
extant laws of physics. Mental states are not. Rather, they are determined by
the WILL OF AGENCY!.
Thus, you can be 50 years of age according to biophysics and
be a toddler in mental capacity. Having the appearance but lacking the capacity
to deal like a 50 year old. This is what happens when a generation leaves their
mental states at the mercy of biology and physics.
Loving your ignorance doesn't mean you actually want to be
ignorant. Rather that you are indifferent and nonchalant towards a deliberate
and willful pursuit of knowledge. You think that somehow you'd know it if you'd
need it. Not true.
There are times when I've glossed over a piece of
information without paying it much mind only to regret it later. The same
information I blithely ignored was badly needed later but was nowhere to be
found in my mental archive. I had taken it for granted.
And herein lies the real danger. The more we form the habit
of ignoring what we consider irrelevant knowledge, the more we reduce our
attention-span to digest even more knowledge. That is, we slowly and gradually
become impatient to consume more pieces of information.
Our minds become lazier at processing difficult data. We'd
therefore opt for comics, jokes and gossips instead because rather than task
the mind, they entertain it.
You love ignorance not because you hate knowledge, but because
the information you pursue is not such that enrich your mental state so that it
is at par with your physical state.
Written by Olakunle Allison
www.facebook.com/barr.olakunleallison
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