Cult of Ignorance...

 

Asimov’s original essay, Cult of Ignorance (PDF)

© September 9, 2023, the Griot Poet

 

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding [its way] through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

 

Isaac Asimov, 1980

 

I often hesitate to answer questions,

In casual conversations or on the Internet,

Posed by those who at first seem to be seeking knowledge,

Only to be barraged with epithets:

 

Grammar Nazi,

Smart ass,

“Uppity,”

“Woke.”

 

Because they weren’t seeking knowledge, but they were seeking an audience,

They weren’t looking for peer review but seeking validation.

They didn’t want information; they wanted confirmation bias!

When I would give my advice from experience,

That deflated what was already the fragile ego of a narcissist.

 

An analog from personal experience:

Major “Tommy” Tompkins and I were both stationed at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas,

There wasn’t a day that went by that he would ask me:

 

“Well, Lieutenant Goodwin, what’s going on in Physics?”

I had a subscription to Physics Today magazine back then (I access it now on the Internet).

As he knew my background and major, Engineering Physics, I would gladly tell him,

Having conversations over coffee in a SCIF - a Special Compartmentalized Information Facility,

I was recently granted my Top-Secret clearance,

Entrusted with the nation’s secrets,

Attached to the 12th Tactical Intelligence Squadron as their Communications-Computer Systems Officer,

At Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas.

I saw the Internet in its infancy,

DARPA-NET sent the equivalent of text messages over Zenith computers with mainframes as big as small garages,

The IMP - interphase messaging processor - that we lugged around - 500 pounds, and as big as a gym locker: was the precursor to your 10-inch tall home router.

I made it my business to study all aspects of transmission: radio, microwave, and line of sight. troposphere scatter, and satellite,

I wrote communication plans for exercises and contingencies,

I took coursework on cryptography,

 

So, when I saw that Major Tompkins was about to call for frequencies outside our equipment’s bandwidth, I advised him against it.

 

“I don’t give a good goddamn about your ‘expertise’ lieutenant! I’m the major, and YOU’RE the ‘butter bar’: got it?”

 

Shocked at his Jekyll and Hyde personality switch, I said, “Yes, sir!”

 

Meanwhile, “back at the ranch”:

The exercise was a flop!

 

Neither our pilots nor Bergstrom flight control tower could talk to each other.

It’s a miracle that they didn’t crash into each other or commercial flights from Mueller!

 

Colonel Eugene Habba,

In charge of Command, Control, Communications, and Countermeasures,

 

Stormed into our tactical headquarters, bellowing:

 

“Who is responsible for this clusterfuck?”

 

To which, after saluting, I said:

“Colonel Habba, Major Tompkins!”

I got my hat and left!

 

I caught up with some pilot friends at the O Club,

They said, “Good, ‘WTFO,’” Air Force call sign for “what the fuck, over?”

I spilled the tea; their eyes rolled.

Major “Tommy” Tompkins was a boot licker, a ladder climber,

He was trying to take all the credit for the exercise,

Well, he got it!

Tommy, despite his narcissism, looked like a pear, especially from the snickering rear view of his butt,

They explained that their nickname for Tompkins because of his protruding stomach was “Jabba the Gut!”

For all of you “Star Wars” aficionados!

 

I laughed out loud - literally!

I needed that levity.

After Habba chewed what was left of his ass,

Major "Jabba" Tompkins put in for his retirement!

 

*****

 

It is a cult of ignorance when expertise is assailed as bullying.

 

It is a cult of ignorance when your side can’t admit to losing the Civil War or a presidential election.

 

It is a cult of ignorance when Dr. Fauci, Senator Romney, the FBI, the CDC Director, elected officials, and VOLUNTEER election workers must shell out dollars to protect their families from raving lunatics who believe every conspiracy theory Orwellian “truth-ed” at them!

 

It is a cult of ignorance when you print t-shirts that say, “fuck your feelings,” when put under the stress of information, YOU’RE the biggest snowflakes!

 

It is a cult of ignorance when climate scientists sounding the alarm to protect their families and the planet are supposedly lying to you, but fossil fuel companies are the “arbiters of truth.”

 

It is a cult of ignorance when everything about modernity you don’t like is “woke,” and you refuse to crack a book open out of sheer arrogance.

 

Banning books is a cult of ignorance. Yet, the number one way for the early deaths of children 0 - 17 is semiautomatic weapons - NOT libraries or drag queen shows - yet you refuse to do anything beyond vapid “thoughts and prayers” that you neither think nor utter.

 

Like Major Tompkins,

Your “Colonel Habba” moment is coming,

When the facts gob-smack you and bite you in the ass,

Ecclesiastes said, “There is no new thing under the sun,”

The Bard said, “What’s past is prologue.”

I await your retirement from public life,

As your stubborn stances have caused much strife,

Eventually, the true “children of light” will triumph,

As you fade away from existence,

And your destructive career in the cult of ignorance.