I'm trying to figure out if Bonhoeffer's theory applies to the great orange one. Or is is he simply ignorant? I guess it is some of both. He may be an idiot savant. He certainly has a talent to lead many people, and to cause them to act stupidly. And he is certainly ignorant of many/most facts about the world. I have the impression that he doesn't believe there are objective facts. Instead he seems to believe that anything he wishes to be true *is* true.
Actually in re-reading Paul K's comment it might be more correct to say Trump attracts followers rather than Trump is a leader. The former attests to the mentality of the followers, the latter not so much.
Ironically he was my first thought and then I thought of all of them after Kennedy. LOL I don't see the ides of Idiocracy going away anytime soon. God help us all!
This makes me think of what happened during COVID. Smart people losing their jobs or being unable to go to school, and in some areas public places , because they refused to get an experimental shot. Stupid people lining up to get jabbed. People wearing masks even though they don’t block viruses. This was the best example of what happens when stupid people follow the advice of psychopaths like Fauci, Gates etc.
I do not think Trump is stupid, his IQ likely around 100, certainly not intelligent in the traditional sense of the word. I tend to think he is evil by not caring to get educated on basic facts, and ignoring any that will get in his way of manipulating his base. But overall, I cannot imagine sitting on a plane for hours talking with him that I would conclude "smart dude". I would not find him interesting unless I knew he was president. I would think "bit of a jerk who loves himself and despises the rest of mankind".
Trump is massively ignorant as well as very dumb, and he's incredibly greedy and selfish. Good chance he suffers from malignant narcissism as well, and has zero feelings of empathy or remorse. All he cares about is himself, his own survival and profit in his pocket. He'd throw his own kids under the bus if it meant his own survival, and he's already betrayed his country and committed treason, even if most of the country turns a blind eye. Good chance he's Putin's asset, either willingly, or being blackmailed, and that many of those highly classied documents he stole went directly to Putin, and the Saudis.
Bonhoeffer's text is called "Wer hält Stand?" I believe from january 1943, not sure.
It has ever been my mental companion for many years. It characterizes the fate of some Lebenshaltungen, lived lifes.
The fate of the fanatic; of the desillusionized who retreats himself into a mental wasteland; of the stupid with whom cannot be discussed; of the pious; of the ever reasonable debaters; of the "scientists"; even of the responsible ones who strive to choose the best under all circumstances "forgetting that the greater evil may [at some point] turn out to be the greater good!" "Hier liegt Stoff für Tragödien" schreibt B. This is the stuff tragedies are formed out.
"the "scientists"; even of the responsible ones who strive to choose the best under all circumstances"
Such aberrant practices still occur, and their products taint scientific publications.
Cheating, to seek prestige, and unfair advantages in obtaining grants and sinecure.
Stupid, because they knowingly abused ethical guidelines and risked the personal consequences of being uncovered; but, their study could have led to adverse social applications.
Fascinating read—and a sobering reminder. We talk about history repeating itself, yet we rarely take meaningful steps to address the conditions that led us here. Bonhoeffer’s insight on stupidity being more dangerous than evil feels especially relevant today. It’s not just about recognizing the patterns—it’s about having the personal responsibility and moral courage to break them.
@Philip Mancini, Jr: In reading your comment, my first thought went to abusive/toxic parenting, where the child who was physically abused excessively and clearly hated it, becomes the exact same kind of parent, something he or she said they'd never ever become. And history repeats itself, one generation at a time. What you said about "having the personal responsibility and moral courage to break them", rings true here. Might I add having the ability to empathize and put yourself in another's shoes and also the mental construct to be open to self discovery and realize that many people know more than you do about a particular subject? Being open to suggestion and having the willingness to view things through a different lens is crucial for change to occur. I don't know how someone would develop these traits if they lacked them though. I've always been like this, ever since I can recall back to age 5. I was born like this and have always been a deep thinker and I think it's my extreme sensitivity that created this. I lack balance though. I never had kids because I feared causing them the same kind of traumas that I endured as a kid. And now, at age 54, I've come to realize that I would've broken that generational trauma had I chosen to become a parent. It's so difficult at times to see ourselves objectively!
I couldn’t agree more. One of the pillars of leadership is self-awareness—understanding both how we see ourselves and how others see us. It’s a simple concept in theory, but complex in practice. You’ve also touched on two other critical traits: emotional intelligence and empathy. Together, these traits create the capacity to reflect, adapt, and truly learn from our mistakes. That combination is rare, and it’s what allows someone to not only recognize harmful patterns but also take deliberate steps to break them. Thank you for sharing such a personal and deeply important perspective—it’s a powerful reminder of the courage it takes to face ourselves honestly.
Bonhoeffer witnessed the rise of naziism. His perspective on power and evil is specific. I bet he saw a lot of stupidity in the blind followers of hitler who ignored the signs.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
Realistically, I'm not sure why people give themselves so much credit. We are just a generation or 2 away from the Stone Ages at any given time. 90 - 95% of people are too stupid to make smart decisions, much of through the choice of willful ignorance. Until we prohibit the practice of massive wealth hoarding which enables a small percentage of people to brainwash the rest, nothing will change. So, in essence, nothing will change since Western culture equates the acquisition of excessive wealth and power with "success". Glad I'm not much longer for this world.
Unfortunately a very accurate description of the insanity on our college campuses and other formerly great institutions. The many useful idiots acting under some combination of herd mentality and the manipulation of a presumably smaller core of devoted jihadist supporters.
Bonhoeffer's moral integrity tragically led to his murder by Nazi fascists. How sad and frightening it is that today one of the main ideological offshoots of Nazism, the jihadist fascists (who overtly combine fascist ideology with Islamist religious fanaticism), finds tolerance and even support in the western world, particularly in those institutions that claim to represent critical thought and liberal values.
Good comment. What should we do about the fascism that is combating the fascism you reference? Tolerate it? Support it? Naively think it will go away in the event the jihadist fascism is pushed back?
It does seem to many that the christofascism being called upon to combat the jihadifascism is equally, if not more, dangerous.
Good question. I do not know that I have a good answer, but I would start by throwing out the suggestion that people who claim to hold classical liberal values should not tolerate hateful rhetoric, whether it comes from the far right or the far left.
My personal opinion is that while I do not deny the threat from the far right, at the current moment the intolerance from the far left poses the greater threat. This is because it seems tolerated and excused by more of our mainstream institutions, and because it often cloaks itself in rhetoric that camouflages its true nature. In contrast, the hate from the far right seems harder to disguise and therefore easier to recognize (although I agree that it has made concerning inroads into our government).
Where have the "adults" been on college campuses, when they should have been "educating" students that calling for jihad and intifada does not constitute fighting for human rights? It is not racist, Islamophobic, or "colonialist" to condemn people who support jihadists. (BTW how did there get to be close to 2 billion Muslims in the first place, if not by violent imperialism and colonialism--so how is Muslim civilization any less guilty than Christian civilization in that regard?)
But the bottom line is that there should be no tolerance for intolerance, whatever its source. So when people on the left claim to hold liberal values, they need to call out and criticize those people on their side of the political spectrum who violate those values, and not just the violators from the opposite side of the political spectrum. Otherwise, they lose all credibility (as many of them already have in my eyes, even though I have historically felt myself to be left of center in terms of most of my opinions).
I'd ask for comparisons of "hateful rhetoric" from the left and from the right but such comparisons would necessarily include the predominance of one side or the other which we likely disagree on. There is also the matter of what media one uses to collect their version of said rhetoric.
No tolerance for intolerance? If a person (generally Left-leaning) is intolerant of Nazis and fascism I'm kind of at a loss as to why I (or anybody else) should hold this intolerance against them. (Although there may be other reasons to not tolerate them. Just being intolerant of Nazis doesn't make someone a good or worthy human). Remember World War 2? There was a lot of intolerance for Nazis and fascists. A lot of them were even killed for trying to further these ideologies.
Jihadists? Sounds to me like the use of a prejudicial term to include a whole lot of "Others" that it seems you have decided not to like. Is it Jihadist to oppose the military actions taking place in Gaza? How many dead Palestinians (a lot of them starved to death) does it take to "balance" the rapes and murders committed by Hamas fighters? And that doesn't even include the conditions imposed by Israel on the residents of Gaza (Hamas or otherwise) leading to the Oct 7 attack.
This should not be very difficult for a person with a reasonably functional moral compass. Nazism is an ideology of hate based on racist fanaticism and is therefore incompatible with a tolerant society. Jihadism (Hamas, Hezbulllah, Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad--how helpful they actually put it in their name for us--ISIS, Al Qaeda, the Iranian mullahs) is an ideology of hate based on a fanatical interpretation of religion, and is therefore incompatible with a tolerant society.
I agree the Gaza war looks ugly. That's what it looks like to fight a group of jihadists. Hamas has deliberately designed their battlefield to ensure civilian casualties in the course of trying to get to them--that's why they're called human shields, which is a war crime. Pretty evil. No civilized society would or should allow that to continue to exist on their border. And yet every day the Gazan leadership decides that it prefers to continue the war, rather than release the hostages (another war crime) and surrender (like even the Nazis and Japanese did at the end of WWII). Where is all the outrage at Hamas for starting and continuing this brutal slaughter? I haven't seen it--the outrage seems to be misdirected at Israel instead.
As for media, I'd recommend "Democracy and Death Cults" by Douglas Murray, "Palestine: 1936" by Oren Kessler, and "Ghosts of a Holy War" by Yardena Schwartz (I'm currently in the middle of this last one but it seems very good so far). If you have any good book recommendations I'm open to suggestions.
Well put. But I would emphasize the difference between ignorance and stupidity. A smart person's ignorance about particular things can be corrected by providing appropriate information. A stupid person is one who cannot reason effectively and cannot learn.
This article, at least in the first part, seems to be conflating mild ignorance or small cognitive slips with a more pernicious kind of stupidity which would be something like a person's failure to properly take in and evaluate new evidence and update their world model or view. Maybe stupidity can take other dangerous forms but the examples given are somewhat trite.
No we're not too stupid just outnumbered. I've been reading comments all for an hour and one thing I notice is the irony in how one side still believes they're better than the other. Regardless of where one or the group stands we can't view ourselves better than another. This in itself is demoralizing and just as dangerous as evil and stupidity. The problem with stupidity is the upbringing. If we take a step back and look at how we allow so much media influence on the children today and how our parents didn't we can see the truth hiding in the fictions of our realities. Take back parenting, reshape our world. Just a thought and perhaps a burned out opinion. Find the middle ground and we'll create a better today and a brighter hope for tomorrow.
But you see, the problem with stupidity is that we see it as “harmless”, “corny” even. So it’s very easy for power to fall into the hands of those who are stupid
I like to think I know stupid when I see it. As the article says, it's like watching somebody play chess with a pigeon. That's clear and obvious. I think evil is generally much more calculated and easier to hide.
Hmm, you have a point there, I think that’s the “harmlessness” of it all. But then again i do agree with your initial point, both stupidity and evil are equally dangerous and we can see it eating through society’s fabric
There is another state of mind and of being that we call 'ignorance'; to ignore. This is a purposeful state that is often based on supporting unfounded 'beliefs', and in so doing, reinforcing 'stupidity'.
Although "ignorance" has the root "ignore", I don't think that's quite what it means in normal usage. Instead, I think that to be ignorant about something means "unaware" rather than purposefully "ignoring".
I'm trying to figure out if Bonhoeffer's theory applies to the great orange one. Or is is he simply ignorant? I guess it is some of both. He may be an idiot savant. He certainly has a talent to lead many people, and to cause them to act stupidly. And he is certainly ignorant of many/most facts about the world. I have the impression that he doesn't believe there are objective facts. Instead he seems to believe that anything he wishes to be true *is* true.
Orangeman is stupid and powerful and is leading a sizeable gang of stupid people.
Actually in re-reading Paul K's comment it might be more correct to say Trump attracts followers rather than Trump is a leader. The former attests to the mentality of the followers, the latter not so much.
Ironically he was my first thought and then I thought of all of them after Kennedy. LOL I don't see the ides of Idiocracy going away anytime soon. God help us all!
Donald J.Trump: "I love the poorly educated" -- possibly the only true statement he has ever uttered.
Ignorance + gullibility
= stupidity
= MAGA devotees
= POWER for Donald Trump
This makes me think of what happened during COVID. Smart people losing their jobs or being unable to go to school, and in some areas public places , because they refused to get an experimental shot. Stupid people lining up to get jabbed. People wearing masks even though they don’t block viruses. This was the best example of what happens when stupid people follow the advice of psychopaths like Fauci, Gates etc.
I do not think Trump is stupid, his IQ likely around 100, certainly not intelligent in the traditional sense of the word. I tend to think he is evil by not caring to get educated on basic facts, and ignoring any that will get in his way of manipulating his base. But overall, I cannot imagine sitting on a plane for hours talking with him that I would conclude "smart dude". I would not find him interesting unless I knew he was president. I would think "bit of a jerk who loves himself and despises the rest of mankind".
Trump is massively ignorant as well as very dumb, and he's incredibly greedy and selfish. Good chance he suffers from malignant narcissism as well, and has zero feelings of empathy or remorse. All he cares about is himself, his own survival and profit in his pocket. He'd throw his own kids under the bus if it meant his own survival, and he's already betrayed his country and committed treason, even if most of the country turns a blind eye. Good chance he's Putin's asset, either willingly, or being blackmailed, and that many of those highly classied documents he stole went directly to Putin, and the Saudis.
But not to Biden and Harris?
Whatever you think of them, Donald is orders of magnitude worse.
It must be rather confidence-sapping to remember that Trump could beat you hands down at any measure of achievement.
I sincerely doubt that. But are we counting Trump's propensity for cheating?
The TDS is strong with this one.
TDS is seeing everything Trump has said and done, and STILL supporting him.
Bonhoeffer's text is called "Wer hält Stand?" I believe from january 1943, not sure.
It has ever been my mental companion for many years. It characterizes the fate of some Lebenshaltungen, lived lifes.
The fate of the fanatic; of the desillusionized who retreats himself into a mental wasteland; of the stupid with whom cannot be discussed; of the pious; of the ever reasonable debaters; of the "scientists"; even of the responsible ones who strive to choose the best under all circumstances "forgetting that the greater evil may [at some point] turn out to be the greater good!" "Hier liegt Stoff für Tragödien" schreibt B. This is the stuff tragedies are formed out.
These few pages mean a whole world.
December 1942. It is a classic in German history, along with Niemöller’s ‘First they came’ poem (from 1946)
German: https://germanhistorydocs.org/de/deutschland-nationalsozialismus-1933-1945/pastor-dietrich-bonhoeffer-wer-haelt-stand-dezember-1942
English: https://germanhistorydocs-org.translate.goog/de/deutschland-nationalsozialismus-1933-1945/pastor-dietrich-bonhoeffer-wer-haelt-stand-dezember-1942?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
"the "scientists"; even of the responsible ones who strive to choose the best under all circumstances"
Such aberrant practices still occur, and their products taint scientific publications.
Cheating, to seek prestige, and unfair advantages in obtaining grants and sinecure.
Stupid, because they knowingly abused ethical guidelines and risked the personal consequences of being uncovered; but, their study could have led to adverse social applications.
Fascinating read—and a sobering reminder. We talk about history repeating itself, yet we rarely take meaningful steps to address the conditions that led us here. Bonhoeffer’s insight on stupidity being more dangerous than evil feels especially relevant today. It’s not just about recognizing the patterns—it’s about having the personal responsibility and moral courage to break them.
@Philip Mancini, Jr: In reading your comment, my first thought went to abusive/toxic parenting, where the child who was physically abused excessively and clearly hated it, becomes the exact same kind of parent, something he or she said they'd never ever become. And history repeats itself, one generation at a time. What you said about "having the personal responsibility and moral courage to break them", rings true here. Might I add having the ability to empathize and put yourself in another's shoes and also the mental construct to be open to self discovery and realize that many people know more than you do about a particular subject? Being open to suggestion and having the willingness to view things through a different lens is crucial for change to occur. I don't know how someone would develop these traits if they lacked them though. I've always been like this, ever since I can recall back to age 5. I was born like this and have always been a deep thinker and I think it's my extreme sensitivity that created this. I lack balance though. I never had kids because I feared causing them the same kind of traumas that I endured as a kid. And now, at age 54, I've come to realize that I would've broken that generational trauma had I chosen to become a parent. It's so difficult at times to see ourselves objectively!
I couldn’t agree more. One of the pillars of leadership is self-awareness—understanding both how we see ourselves and how others see us. It’s a simple concept in theory, but complex in practice. You’ve also touched on two other critical traits: emotional intelligence and empathy. Together, these traits create the capacity to reflect, adapt, and truly learn from our mistakes. That combination is rare, and it’s what allows someone to not only recognize harmful patterns but also take deliberate steps to break them. Thank you for sharing such a personal and deeply important perspective—it’s a powerful reminder of the courage it takes to face ourselves honestly.
Bonhoeffer witnessed the rise of naziism. His perspective on power and evil is specific. I bet he saw a lot of stupidity in the blind followers of hitler who ignored the signs.
This is so interesting. I enjoyed reading everything, it’s thought provoking and intriguing.
What a wonderful article! CC
Thank you for directing our attention towards a great and compact short essay from a life of theological and foremost, human, experience
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
H.L. Mencken
Realistically, I'm not sure why people give themselves so much credit. We are just a generation or 2 away from the Stone Ages at any given time. 90 - 95% of people are too stupid to make smart decisions, much of through the choice of willful ignorance. Until we prohibit the practice of massive wealth hoarding which enables a small percentage of people to brainwash the rest, nothing will change. So, in essence, nothing will change since Western culture equates the acquisition of excessive wealth and power with "success". Glad I'm not much longer for this world.
My feelings and thoughts exactly! Thank you.
Unfortunately a very accurate description of the insanity on our college campuses and other formerly great institutions. The many useful idiots acting under some combination of herd mentality and the manipulation of a presumably smaller core of devoted jihadist supporters.
Bonhoeffer's moral integrity tragically led to his murder by Nazi fascists. How sad and frightening it is that today one of the main ideological offshoots of Nazism, the jihadist fascists (who overtly combine fascist ideology with Islamist religious fanaticism), finds tolerance and even support in the western world, particularly in those institutions that claim to represent critical thought and liberal values.
Good comment. What should we do about the fascism that is combating the fascism you reference? Tolerate it? Support it? Naively think it will go away in the event the jihadist fascism is pushed back?
It does seem to many that the christofascism being called upon to combat the jihadifascism is equally, if not more, dangerous.
Good question. I do not know that I have a good answer, but I would start by throwing out the suggestion that people who claim to hold classical liberal values should not tolerate hateful rhetoric, whether it comes from the far right or the far left.
My personal opinion is that while I do not deny the threat from the far right, at the current moment the intolerance from the far left poses the greater threat. This is because it seems tolerated and excused by more of our mainstream institutions, and because it often cloaks itself in rhetoric that camouflages its true nature. In contrast, the hate from the far right seems harder to disguise and therefore easier to recognize (although I agree that it has made concerning inroads into our government).
Where have the "adults" been on college campuses, when they should have been "educating" students that calling for jihad and intifada does not constitute fighting for human rights? It is not racist, Islamophobic, or "colonialist" to condemn people who support jihadists. (BTW how did there get to be close to 2 billion Muslims in the first place, if not by violent imperialism and colonialism--so how is Muslim civilization any less guilty than Christian civilization in that regard?)
But the bottom line is that there should be no tolerance for intolerance, whatever its source. So when people on the left claim to hold liberal values, they need to call out and criticize those people on their side of the political spectrum who violate those values, and not just the violators from the opposite side of the political spectrum. Otherwise, they lose all credibility (as many of them already have in my eyes, even though I have historically felt myself to be left of center in terms of most of my opinions).
I'd ask for comparisons of "hateful rhetoric" from the left and from the right but such comparisons would necessarily include the predominance of one side or the other which we likely disagree on. There is also the matter of what media one uses to collect their version of said rhetoric.
No tolerance for intolerance? If a person (generally Left-leaning) is intolerant of Nazis and fascism I'm kind of at a loss as to why I (or anybody else) should hold this intolerance against them. (Although there may be other reasons to not tolerate them. Just being intolerant of Nazis doesn't make someone a good or worthy human). Remember World War 2? There was a lot of intolerance for Nazis and fascists. A lot of them were even killed for trying to further these ideologies.
Jihadists? Sounds to me like the use of a prejudicial term to include a whole lot of "Others" that it seems you have decided not to like. Is it Jihadist to oppose the military actions taking place in Gaza? How many dead Palestinians (a lot of them starved to death) does it take to "balance" the rapes and murders committed by Hamas fighters? And that doesn't even include the conditions imposed by Israel on the residents of Gaza (Hamas or otherwise) leading to the Oct 7 attack.
This should not be very difficult for a person with a reasonably functional moral compass. Nazism is an ideology of hate based on racist fanaticism and is therefore incompatible with a tolerant society. Jihadism (Hamas, Hezbulllah, Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad--how helpful they actually put it in their name for us--ISIS, Al Qaeda, the Iranian mullahs) is an ideology of hate based on a fanatical interpretation of religion, and is therefore incompatible with a tolerant society.
I agree the Gaza war looks ugly. That's what it looks like to fight a group of jihadists. Hamas has deliberately designed their battlefield to ensure civilian casualties in the course of trying to get to them--that's why they're called human shields, which is a war crime. Pretty evil. No civilized society would or should allow that to continue to exist on their border. And yet every day the Gazan leadership decides that it prefers to continue the war, rather than release the hostages (another war crime) and surrender (like even the Nazis and Japanese did at the end of WWII). Where is all the outrage at Hamas for starting and continuing this brutal slaughter? I haven't seen it--the outrage seems to be misdirected at Israel instead.
As for media, I'd recommend "Democracy and Death Cults" by Douglas Murray, "Palestine: 1936" by Oren Kessler, and "Ghosts of a Holy War" by Yardena Schwartz (I'm currently in the middle of this last one but it seems very good so far). If you have any good book recommendations I'm open to suggestions.
Well put. But I would emphasize the difference between ignorance and stupidity. A smart person's ignorance about particular things can be corrected by providing appropriate information. A stupid person is one who cannot reason effectively and cannot learn.
A stupid person is one who cannot reason effectively and cannot or refuses to learn.
This article, at least in the first part, seems to be conflating mild ignorance or small cognitive slips with a more pernicious kind of stupidity which would be something like a person's failure to properly take in and evaluate new evidence and update their world model or view. Maybe stupidity can take other dangerous forms but the examples given are somewhat trite.
Both stupidity and evil are equally dangerous. We should, in theory, be able to deny stupidity power, but perhaps we're just too stupid.
No we're not too stupid just outnumbered. I've been reading comments all for an hour and one thing I notice is the irony in how one side still believes they're better than the other. Regardless of where one or the group stands we can't view ourselves better than another. This in itself is demoralizing and just as dangerous as evil and stupidity. The problem with stupidity is the upbringing. If we take a step back and look at how we allow so much media influence on the children today and how our parents didn't we can see the truth hiding in the fictions of our realities. Take back parenting, reshape our world. Just a thought and perhaps a burned out opinion. Find the middle ground and we'll create a better today and a brighter hope for tomorrow.
I think we've bred and elevated stupidity with our policies of equal outcomes over equal opportunities.
But you see, the problem with stupidity is that we see it as “harmless”, “corny” even. So it’s very easy for power to fall into the hands of those who are stupid
I like to think I know stupid when I see it. As the article says, it's like watching somebody play chess with a pigeon. That's clear and obvious. I think evil is generally much more calculated and easier to hide.
Hmm, you have a point there, I think that’s the “harmlessness” of it all. But then again i do agree with your initial point, both stupidity and evil are equally dangerous and we can see it eating through society’s fabric
Ignorance or uneducated is not stupidity and can be remedied if participant is willing.
Stupidity is an indelible mindset that cannot be corrected because subject is unwilling.
TrumptyDumbty happens to be on the upper scale of stupidity with a knack for manipulating stupid puppets.
I believe it was Mark Twain who said he'd rather deal with the evil person rather than the stupid; the evil at least rest occasionally.
There is another state of mind and of being that we call 'ignorance'; to ignore. This is a purposeful state that is often based on supporting unfounded 'beliefs', and in so doing, reinforcing 'stupidity'.
Although "ignorance" has the root "ignore", I don't think that's quite what it means in normal usage. Instead, I think that to be ignorant about something means "unaware" rather than purposefully "ignoring".
Actually, we should all purpose to be more ignorant!
Imagine what a peaceful world it would have been of Islam and Christianity had not been spread everywhere?