No, this is not another post about the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, although I believe that the old Wizard would be in agreement with the sentiments about to be expressed. It’s an endorsement of an ignorance based worldview, as something that our civilization desperately needs.
Ignorance as a virtue? I can’t think of anything that sounds more ridiculous to our post-modern sensibilities. My first exposure to the "Virtues of Ignorance" came from the Wendell Berry essay The Way of Ignorance. Berry makes an eloquent argument that the problem at the core of mankind’s current troubles is the post enlightenment, blind faith in the power of science, and man’s ability of reason to solve all problems that we face. To my knowledge, Berry is not the first to make this argument, just the first to use the term Ignorance as something to be praised.
Simplifying the argument here, what Berry and others are advocating is acceptance, and recognition of limits. This is revolutionary talk in our culture. We have been conditioned to never accept limitations, being schooled from our earliest days that “we can be anything we want to be.” Now, if we are all honest with ourselves, I think we would admit that experience has taught us we can’t. There are many things I wanted to be, but was unable to become for reasons as simple as my physical, social, and mental limits. That is why I was not the starting quarterback for the University of Notre Dame. Heck, I wasn’t even the starting quarterback for Notre Dame H.S.
What Berry and others are advocating is an abandonment of the enlightenment ideology that man can sit upon the throne of God and control his own destiny. As the past 200 years of history has demonstrated, when man places himself on the throne, with the best of intentions to bring about paradise (whether social, economic, political, or scientific) the result is totalitarianism, and the creation of hell on earth. Despite the best of intentions for a Great Leap Forward, A Workers Paradise, Liberty-Equality-Fraternity, etc… the end result is always Satan sitting on the throne overseeing a reign of terror.
An ignorance based worldview is a return to pre-modern thought, that mankind, as a created being, has real and tangible limits. In mythical terms, our fall from grace happened when we ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Our hubris to see as God sees, resulted in our exile from the garden. Pride is the original sin.
What acceptance of our limits means is understanding that we are not divine. We are created in the image and likeness of God, and blessed the gifts of reason, and free will. These gifts are meant to be used in service of something larger than ourselves. This is the core of Stewardship. “As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 7:10).
The fundamental flaw of the post enlightenment, humanist worldviews, be they Marxist, or Libertarian, are that they view reason, and will as the confirmation that man is a self contained individual and beholden to nothing larger than himself. In a culture dominated by such a belief system, community is impossible. I believe that with the exception of sociopaths, human beings know in their gut that such a worldview is false. Despite our daily immersion in a culture that holds selfish individualism up as the ideal, most of us think and act to the contrary. We are hard wired to seek community, to share with one another our joy and our suffering. In the end, community will prevail, because it is the truth, it is who we are and how we were created to be.
History is not a linear progression towards liberal, individualism, and secular humanism, despite what our culture tells us. In the end, the bonds of brotherhood, and sacrifice will win out. But not because we will it so. For to think that we, as humans, are capable of achieving community, and retuning to Eden with our own free will is to make the same mistake as our enemies have. Tolkien illustrated this the best. In the end the fellowship of the ring, despite their achievements and sacrifices, only succeeded by grace. Frodo when standing before the fire with the ring, hesitated, and fell prey to the temptation of power. Had not Gollum bit off the ring, and fallen into the flames on accident, evil would have prevailed. For while our spirit is willing, our flesh is weak. Only God’s grace can ultimately save us. We must acknowledge our ignorance, and helplessness with humility if we are ever to find peace.
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