Pen-Elayne on the Web

Provincialism vs. Ignorance

If I were a tinfoil-hat kinda person, I'd think something sinister was behind the sudden disappearance of the lovely comment exchange I had with Will Sudderth regarding yesterday's blog entry. Wish I'd kept it, but who knew Haloscan would cut on and off like a crazy monkey? Anyway, the gist of what Will said, if he'll allow me to paraphrase, is that we should be careful, when disagreeing with people's viewpoints, not to assume they're ignorant sheep. And I totally agree. Heaven knows there's enough propaganda of all sorts floating about this society to make just about all of us susceptible to some of it some of the time. And this particular administration (as many administrations before it) has a lot of veterans who excel at obfuscation and outright lies, buddies who own the media to reinforce those lies, etc. So no, you can't really blame a heck of a lot of Joe and Jane Q. Publics out there for believing what's fed to them. Not many people have the time or inclination to seek out information. And many of them are comfortable believing what they believe, and don't like their mindset challenged. (And when you're talking about some comics message board posters, this doesn't just refer to their political beliefs but their opinions about comics as well.)

But it's the nature of many-to-many discussion that people with differing beliefs will encounter one another, so if you are one of those "my country right or wrong" folks and you find yourself in a discussion with a "the world isn't all black and white" person, it can appear to be an "ignorant versus informed" deal when actually it's probably more like a "provincial versus big picture" one. I don't think of provincialism as ignorance at all, I think of it as a comfort zone into which people retreat. It's like folks who "find religion" later on in life, I don't consider them suddenly delusional and irrational but just ordinary folks seeking comfort. It is a scary world out there, and it helps many people to believe Big Brother or God only has their best interests at heart or represents Truth. Provincial? Sure. Ignorant? I wouldn't say so.