This is my very own quote, and you'll find it at the bottom of every email you might get from me.
If you consider what evil is, what kinds of acts you think are evil, the people you would call
evil, every time the root is in ignorance. War comes ultimately from ignorance in my opinion,
and hatred is definitely the child of ignorance.
For some strange reason there are people out there who cling to their ignorance like a drowning
person might cling to a log. It's theirs, they cherish it, and they hope others will do the same.
They think educated people are out to get them, and that too much of any kind of education will
permanently ruin a person. If you think "you're making this up," I swear I'm not. My
ex-mother-in-law is a case in point.
Not all people behave this way universally, some seem only to apply it to certain aspects of their
lives, like religion for instance. The mother of a friend of mine actually made the statement "that
university is going to educate the religion right out of you!" in complete distress when her son
began to question the teachings and authority of the church his family belongs to. I know other
people who seriously belive that higher education (secular, of course since seminary would be
ok) and religious faith are incompatible and religion is the one to be cherished more.
This makes NO SENSE to me. Frankly, I think it's ridiculous. When there is so much to learn
in the world how could anyone possibly close his or her mind to gaining new knowledge? I find
that the more I learn, regardless of what exactly I'm learning, the more in-tune with the Divine I
feel.
As far as I'm concerned, nurturing your ignorance about almost anything is in complete violation
of the Five Points of Wiccan belief. As I just mentioned, I feel more in tune with the Divine as I
learn more in life. Willfully refusing to learn is, to me, the same as completely denying the Ethic
of Attunement. How can you attune to something you have no knowledge of? Secondly,
enjoying your ignorance is utterly denying the Ethic of Constant Improvement. We should be
striving to improve ourselves in all aspects of our lives, including widening our knowledge base
and willfully seeking to eliminate our own ignorance when we find it.
This is also an aspect of taking Personal Responsibility. No one is responsible for our education
besides ourselves. Someone I know once complained to me that they were happy that
analogies were probably going to be eliminated from the SAT since they weren't fair because
they "didn't teach that at school." ?? Hellllllooooooooooo...if you've attended 13 years of
school or so, don't you think that somewhere along the way you should have picked up a book?
When people say "well, this is what I was taught," I often ask "So what did you learn?"
Teachers can't teach you everything you need to know, whether we're talking about grade
school, college, Sunday school, church in general, or in a coven. We must each seek
knowledge out for ourselves.
And of course, we reap what we sow. The Law of Return states that very clearly. The Golden
Rule is another good example. If you want people to deal with you with a sense of
understanding you must do the same with them. I don't care what the relationship
is...parent/child, brother/sister, teacher/student, black/whitw etc and all the vice versas. If you
chose to remain ignorant you are chosing to fail at the relationship (this relates so nicely with the
Ethic of Attunement). To say "I don't undersatnd you, please help me to" is the first step to
breaking down barriers when they exist. It's difficult to hate or hold a grudge when you can
truly understand another person, when you cast aside your ignorance.
Lastly, we have "An it harm none do what you will" and all it's variations. Being ignorant is
cutting yourself off, in my opinion. You are primarily hurting yourself, and the self is definitely
included in "none."
Please keep in mind, this is not an excuse to engage in harmful behavior, just for "experience."
The Rede will always apply, as do the other Ethics in regards to the actions you take. Therefor
saying "well, I was ignorant of what it would be like to drive drunk and I wanted to remedy
that," or something along those lines is NOT VALID, in my opinion. Chosing to do harm for
the sake of experience is not at all in the spirit of the arguments made in this essay. As always,
the choice is yours.
I may chose to add more here in the time to come...