I used to be surprised at how little people know, especially about current events and important political subjects. I’ve gotten over it. I’ve moved on to the psychology of changing minds.
I’m not the only one concerned about ignorant people messing up the world in their effort to make things better. In a 2014 presentation by TED (About) we learn about global ignorance and what can be done about it.
Take the time to watch “How not to be ignorant about the world.”
As someone who is increasingly worried by the widespread ignorance in the world — the way ignorant people can be easily manipulated to fear things that don’t exist and, as a consequence, to panic and make terrible decisions (i.e. voting for Brexit, electing Trump, who knows what else…), I was quite amazed at how these four simple rules can totally change one’s perception of the world, which is based on untrue horror stories spread by the media and outdated ‘facts+ learned at school…
Aye, I got all the answers right, but I was surprised that the Swedes, whom I consider to be way above average in education, could get them so wrong — much worse, in fact, than the US population (I guess that Americans are just a bit more skeptic about what they read in the news … or on Facebook). Of course, the ignorance of the media didn’t surprise me at all. But the solution seems to be rather simple. The only question I had was how widespread their solution could be, using their concept of the ‘non-ignorance certificate’…
Well, at least it’s great to see that this problem is being addressed and some solutions are being found 🙂 Democracy, even though it’s utopian, truly relies on people having a vote making good, informed decisions about their future; but that means that access to factual information is easy to get. The more igborant people are, because all they can access is exaggerated news stories with information taken out of context… well, the less democracy can work as it should.
Will Rogers was recently quoted by Denzel Washington, “If your don’t read the newspapers you are uninformed. If you do, your are mis-informed.”
While I think they have a good idea, knowledge certificates, they have yet to find an effective way to promote the idea. I took me 2+ years to find out about their idea… by accident.
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