The title of this post is a phrase I have heard both brothers Green (Hank and John – or, as John probably prefers, John and Hank) say more than once. And it is true. Collectively, as a species, human beings don’t know most things. What is more, individually, we each only hold a fragment of that collective knowledge.
We don’t know most things. But that is not a bad thing. Not inherently anyway. What sets us apart from other animals is that we know that we don’t know. And we care about that. We want to know things. We are trying to figure things out – individually and as a species. We wonder about stuff (Homo Mirans), which leads us to play with stuff (Homo Ludens) and to think about/with stuff (Homo Sapiens), so we can use our understanding and experience to make new stuff (Homo Faber). It is essential to our nature. It is what makes us human. We are constantly discovering we don’t know stuff – and that drives us to learn.
Ignorance is not inherently bad. It is a starting point. It is the starting point for all human beings. We all come into the world unaware even that we can control our limbs and we spend the rest of our lives working on becoming less ignorant – thereby gaining agency in the world.
The corollary is that, to stop wondering, playing, thinking, or making is to abdicate part of our humanity. People don’t willingly cede those birthrights though. It is only through relentless gaslighting, badgering, or outright bullying that a human being can be coerced or tormented into yielding those parts of their nature. To prevent a person from knowing – to be an impediment to wonder, to play, to thinking, or to making – is to restrict that person from being fully human. It is, in a very literal sense, dehumanizing.
And it happens all the time.
The world is awash with individuals so convinced of their own moral superiority, they believe their own way of knowing to be the standard. That sense of superiority leads them to feel entitled to goad their fellow human beings into unquestioning acceptance of their lifeless ideas. They demand compliance instead of diverse knowing. And the moral nature of their claim to superiority immunizes them against complaints of dehumanization. If you are familiar with Aaron James’s work, that description may sound familiar. Those are the defining characteristics he identifies in his theory of assholes. And that is a name we use for some of the patronizing imperialists who impose their way of knowing – because that is what they are. But we do not use that name for most of them. Instead, for most of them, their gaslighting has been so effective we passively accept names they claim for themselves. Politicians are a prime example. But far too many call themselves by the name: educator.