Are You Guilty of Strategic Ignorance?
We live in an age of strategic ignorance, and we are all guilty of it at one time or another. What do I mean by “strategic ignorance?”
Strategic ignorance is the willful choice of not wanting to know about something. We do it because we don’t want to know about something that may upset us. In other words, we choose to stay ignorant about a topic or subject, which may upset our mode of thinking. We’d rather stay uninformed about a particular matter, than be told the truth about it.
American author Mark Twain (1835-1910) exclaimed in his 1906 biography: “How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again!”
Put another way, we would rather live a lie, than feel the pain of knowing the truth. Left unhindered, this can lead us into a world of delusion.
We can all relate to this, whether it’s health, finance, business, career, romance, friendship, family, or I dare say, politics. At one time or another, we have been or still are guilty of this. We just simply hate to admit to something that in fact may very well be true. Why? Perhaps out of fear of damaging our ego, or perhaps in trying to protect someone else. It’s just easier to go on accepting an untruth than the truth. How does that saying go? “So long as I know not, it hurteth me not,” penned originally by English author George Pettie (1548-1589). And yet there is something extremely dangerous about not wanting to know the truth in any matter.
Health is a classic example where many people prefer not to know the truth. Why else would so many put off going to the doctor? Often, putting off a visit to a doctor can lead to a late diagnosis of some kind of malady. Strategic ignorance can be a matter of life or death in cases like this, and not knowing can be deadly.
Likewise, one of the biggest places where strategic ignorance finds itself at home is in that cathedral of capitalist finance itself, namely the stock market. The deception and self-deception that drives the stock market knows no ends. Strategic ignorance thrives in the market for many souls who dare to partake and be fed upon by those who stick to the facts, and nothing but the facts.
False hope takes over when a stock takes a plunge in the opposite direction that one wants it to go. Despite signs flashing “sell, sell, sell!” the eternal optimist will hang on with the hope of it coming back. In fact, many may even double or triple down despite all facts telling them the opposite. They refuse to accept the reality of the situation and hence will pay a dear price for their willful strategic ignorance. One of the all-time great stock speculators, Bernard Baruch (1870-1965) wrote in his 1957 autobiography, “Still, over optimism is capable of doing more damage than pessimism since caution tends to be thrown aside.”
Just the same, be it over optimism or over pessimism, both aren’t sticking to the facts at hand, and both are being strategically ignorant to the reality of any given situation. Obviously, if not checked, this can lead to serious problems in any facet of our lives. The successful person recognizes this and faces any given situation by seeing the facts for what they are. Reality isn’t what we wish it to be, rather reality is what it is. The sooner we recognize for what it is, the sooner that we can navigate and deal with the situation in a successful manner.
This brings me back to a personal story of mine that was pivotal in my life. No doubt, many of you also have such stories, where everything seemingly changed at the drop of a dime. Mine goes back almost 40 years to a Friday late afternoon on February 26th, 1988, in the Officers’ Mess at Canadian Forces Base Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan, Canada.
It was then and there that the flight surgeon informed me that I could no longer continue my jet flight training. He dropped my medical flight category because of an internal ear problem resulting in motion sickness. Just like that, my dream of being a jet pilot since childhood had been cut away in one felled swipe. Life had changed and I was staring down the barrel of a completely new reality. The kid’s dream was over.
I tell this story to relay the fact that there was no chance of strategic ignorance here. Reality hit me hard and hit me fast, but just the same, I had to be ready to accept this change hard and fast. The sooner I accepted my fate that my flying days were behind me, the sooner I could plan and start getting to work on what my next steps would be. There was no time to waste and there was no time to be strategically ignorant. Life sometimes has a way of bringing us back to reality, whether we like it or not, and that was one of those times for me.
Strategic ignorance will catch up to all of us, if we let it get the better of us. Wishful thinking is nice, but it’s only nice so long as the consequences of living in a dream world haven’t knocked on our door yet. When they do knock, be ready for it, and accept the situation for what it is, nothing more, nothing less.
Russian-born American author and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982) wrote that “You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.” And that is one truism that we should all take to heart.
For more check out the Global Ebook Awards GOLD & SILVER Winner of 2014 & 2016, The C.A.T. Principle: Change, Action, Trust – Words to Live By available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. See the latest Amazon reviews here. Sign up above and receive this blog to your inbox. Comments and thoughts welcome.
