The modern era of Internet communications, user-generated content, global connectivity, and heightened social consciousness gives human kind immense potential for intelligence, cooperation, and prosperity. Yet we remain in constant struggle to find common ideals and never seem to get around to applying our collective capacity to understand and address the rampant crises that negatively impact our civilization and our planet.
This blog is about Ignorance—a hot commodity in my homeland: America. It is bought and sold here, often manufactured elsewhere but even more often a byproduct of America’s macro-environment. Since American leadership is still a prevailing force in the global community it seems important that America lead the world into a more just, equitable and sustainable future rather than down our current path; corrupted, confused and manipulated citizens wondering seemingly aimless into a self-inflicted pay-per-view anti-enlightenment.
I was inspired by some supreme displays of collective ignorance over the last few years; Tea party protesters during the 2012 election—their unfounded talking points, inability to recognize when they were working against their own self-interest and their endless equating of contradictory ideologies, the largest and most useless showing of digitally enabled social activism—Kony2012, the crafty manipulation of public knowledge and democracy brought to you by the corporate billionaire Koch brothers. Perplexed by the consistency of such displays in the age of the instant fact check, I knew a more sinister plot was a foot. How did we get here? Where are people getting this stuff? Why can’t I stop watching the news?
I intended to find out.
I began my research...eh-hem…I Googled the academic corner I thought most appropriate—the study of ignorance. Only to find that it is a largely un-treaded study, aside from some famous quotes and some works by great thinkers of our time (from Isaac Asimov to Mike Judge). In fact there is only one Stanford professor who has been attempting to know what we don’t know in the post post-modern post 9/11 pre Robocop-Mad Maxian era we currently reside in…
Robert N. Proctor coined the term “Agnotology” to describe the cultural production of ignorance and its study. The term has also come to highlight the increasingly common phenomenon where more knowledge of a subject leaves one more uncertain than before—this condition is more the area of agnotology that concerns our purposes. Proctor and many other researchers have attempted to illuminate some of the phenomena contained within the vast universe of natural and manufactured unknown-knowns. Their work underpins my own, which I must admit is much less grounded in an unbiased scientific inquiry and more so in my own experience, observations, and polemic criticisms—hence you are reading a blog and not a peer-reviewed journal.
I call it the Agnosphere. It is the dangerous new realm of collective ignorance. Much like a eco-system supports life, the Agnosphere fosters and sustains ignorance in the face of predatory intelligence.
The makeup of the Agnosphere:
- A desensitized, uncritical and ineffectual population with overstimulated minds
- Weakened traditional media
- Adolescent new media
- Powerful corporations
The "sphere" in Agnosphere is in reference to the public sphere where it parasitically resides. A place in modern society that is evolving and growing so rapidly with technology that the collective intelligence of the public can barely keep pace or recognize its effect on social discourse. We assume many things when it comes to the advancement of technology, including the assertion that it will automatically advance society along with it. Assumption is dangerous and a trait of the Agnosphere so lets step back and examine WTF is happening.
The Public Sphere: An area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action. It is "a discursive space in which individuals and groups congregate to discuss matters of mutual interest and, where possible, to reach a common judgment." The public sphere can be seen as "a theater in modern societies in which political participation is enacted through the medium of talk" and "a realm of social life in which public opinion can be formed". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sphere]The public sphere has been transformed in major ways in America (and likely other places) beyond our precarious collective trust in speed and hearsay there are arguably purposeful mechanisms at work to placate decent, sustain ignorance, and pit the public against itself.
Firstly powerful vested interests are spending billions of dollars to keep many voices unheard and shape the national conversation (through media monopolies and tailored politics) in their favor—“they” have been spoon-feeding the public opinion for a long time. Now we find the informative structures in our society (news media) stuck in crisis mode (9/11 to infinity) and rational facts suddenly up for debate.
Secondly the explosion of information and new avenues for opinion sharing via Internet media has dramatically transformed the underpinnings of our public discourse, creating endless opportunities to contribute, often in spaces devoid of contrasting thought. Virtually everything on the internet now lets you add your thoughts—this evolvement is arguably good or useless but regardless has left an important pillar of democracy; public deliberation relegated to the often anonymous, inflammatory and unregulated, endless chasm of comment threads under Facebook posts and news articles instead of the places it might precipitate some action—the voicemail or email of your representative (also arguably useless). Modern technoculture’s versions of the public sphere are lacking in accountability often facilitating debate when deliberation is required. This collective osmosis of opinion and unaccountability coupled with the extreme excess of opportunity to engage in weakened “talk” has left our modern public sphere lacking in its former democratic utility and our public opinions lacking in the necessary intelligence.
Please join me as we explore our ignorant public sphere—The Agnosphere
Navigating this blog...
Portals:
Agnosphere—A continually updated stream of material related to civic ignorance
About—You Are Here
WTF—FAQs
Quote Me On This—Quotes from or about the Agnosphere
Your Daily Tao—Get your daily does of civic wisdom from Lao-tzu
Ignorant Moments in History—A calendar of major events, recent and otherwise
FauxNews—“And that’s the way it isn’t”
TV Guide—Let me share with you what my TV told me
Film—Reviews and examinations of ignorance and the silver screen
The Internets—I has an opinion and audience
Corporatocracy—A look into the corporate kings that rule our “democracy”
Guns&Blammo—American pistol envy
Links—References and works cited
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