If Ignorance is bliss whats it called when you think you know?

I was most disturbed by an encounter on Google+.  Here I was having what I believed was a thought provoking discussion on the merits and problems of Global Warming, debating the pros and cons of this hotly contested topic when one of the participants, the originator of the post called me ignorant.  I may be ignorant, in fact I would venture to say that I am ignorant on many things and if you followed some of my blogs you’ll remember this little statement admitting that I am ignorant along with the rest of you feeble minded human wastes of skin.  “Most people are wrong about most things most of the time”.

It’s not being called ignorant that bothers me for I freely accept that I don’t know everything and fully understand that my level of understanding about most things is sufficiently insignificant to qualify me as truly ignorant, especially in respect to the total aggregate of human understanding and principally in relation to the galactic cosmic bubble that encompasses all things.  I am nothing but a drooling idiot, a brain of gruel, a mushy mass of meteoric stupidity when balanced against the sum of Devine understanding.

Evan though I admit my visceral shortcomings I do understand one thing;  I understand that when someone else calls you ignorant you can bet your bottom dollar (what is a bottom dollar)  that they are espousing their own mentality much more poignantly than they are exposing yours. 

When the party of the first part cannot convince the party of the second part, ME, then the logical response for the party of the first part is to share the emphatic, emotional epithet of last resort, “ignorant”.  That is the end all argument is it not?  How can one continue a meaningful exchange when ignorant has been used to graphically describe your mentality?  I tried but blood had been drawn and the sharks were circling the wounded words as they came in mass talking in small bites, nibbles only at first but then the great whites smelled the gore and unleashed a torrent of contemptuous and seething innuendos and blatant vocalizations (typed words) that I had no choice but to retreat to safer waters.

 It’s not particular to Global Warming, Woman’s Rights, Gun Control or even Religion or Politics it’s in the process of right over wrong, a process that we’ve determined is more important than civility, graciousness and politeness.  We have adopted the premise that once you think your right nothing else matters.  We turn to our corners of the ring, smile with those whom we agree and start swinging against any who do not.  

I know there are serious issues facing all of us.  The North and South suffered immensurable loss of life as a result of what some would say is a simple issue of human dignity and an issue that for most is a settled matter.  But like the civil war our country is at odds like never before.  We have inflammatory issues that are waiting on the side lines, pushing ever so gently but always pushing, always prodding, stinging with words and occasional violence the two sides galvanized and heated to explode, ready for that little spark to  flicker and detonate, sending an atomic blast across this great land and most likely into the world.  

If we can’t calmly discuss our differences, rationally confer with the opposition then we are a doomed nation.  It is only through composed and poised dialogue that any promise of progress will be made.  The problem however is much more difficult to overcome, it is in the very real possibility that one side is right and the other is wrong.  Within this problem is the dilemma of assisting the wrong side to see the light, accept the right and discard the wrong but in so doing they must admit their fault, repent of their ignorance and accept the retraining and education.  When one side is adamant, their ability to see, even the obvious is obscured by the clouds of illogic, overcome by the irrational of ingrained indoctrination, the improbable task of overcoming ignorance becomes impossible, leaving nothing left but to succumb to the final task of speaking your mind and claiming that the party of the second part (them) is simply and irrevocably ignorant.