Ignorance.

This may or may not ruffle a few feathers (if anybody reads it that is!) and it is something that I’ve been thinking of writing about for a while, I need to get it out of my system! Today a situation arose where ignorance took centre stage and I have found it extremely hard to ignore and I need to vent!

In life there are lots of big topics that are a firm part of everyday life, things that are integral to people’s lives and who they are, sometimes it is easy to get so caught up in our own lives that we fail to notice that there are other things that we should pay attention to.

As a child/teenager you can get away with being in a bubble, nobody cares if you don’t know that much about the big issues in the world as long as you can pass a maths test but as you start to get older it is important to begin to open your mind and inform yourself. Take an interest in the world, you aren’t expected to be able to reel off facts about everything but surely things like Religion, Politics and History are things you should at least seek a basic understanding in?

I put my hands up, I take an interest in Religion, I grew up attending Catholic schools and whilst I am unsure as to what I believe, it is part of my heritage and I can happily debate and discuss Christianity in fair detail. Following on from this I have also done much research regarding other Religions to gain at the very least, a basic understanding.

Today a conversation took place and dangerously the subject of Religion came up and I couldn’t hide the shock in my voice when a participant turned round and stated that they don’t know anything about Religion,  thinks it is all pointless and people who are Religious are wasting their time. This annoys me, making such a sweeping statement with no argument or grounding for this opinion is absurd. Whether you believe in something or not, you need to understand that to other people this is an extremely important subject, something that their whole life may revolve around and making such a sweeping statement without being able to substantiate the comments otherwise this is just offensive and ignorant.

Politics somehow also came up during the conversation and it was also revealed that they can’t be bothered to vote, don’t see the point,  don’t know anything about the parties and they also don’t care. People that don’t vote really annoy me, I understand that the policies and understanding what each party stands for can be a bit confusing but it is important, it’s YOUR say. However small it is, it is your way to get your voice heard. I’m sure many of those who do not vote will be the first to complain when political decisions that they do not agree with, are made. In my opinion you lose all right to be annoyed about the state of the country when you fail to even do a bit of research and have your say in the General Election.

As a whole I feel that it is essential to form and express opinions, be able to debate and argue about the worlds most important topics, understand them, discuss them and generally further educate yourself by understanding the planet you live on. To be a fully rounded individual surely you need to understand everything around you or at least try to.

I’m not saying everybody needs to be an expert on every single topic but at least care and attempt to form at least a very basic opinion.

Does anybody else feel like this or am I alone?

Thanks for reading 🙂

Charlie x