comment by mk

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comment by mk

mk · 4939 days ago · link · · parent · post: Tim Kreider: In Praise of Not Knowing

As soon as I began reading possible explanations — ultraviolet light interacting with chemicals, blah blah blah — I started to lose interest. Just knowing that there is an answer is somehow deflating.

Really? I can't empathize with that. Every answer raises more questions.

Mr. Kreider makes an interesting point about information before the internet, but I don't think the internet has killed mystery, and definitely not obscurity. This essay seems a bit of a nostalgic reflex to me. He needn't worry about kids. I'm sure if he asked some, they'd overwhelm him with obscure stuff he had never heard about.

The quote: "Learning how to transform mere ignorance into mystery, simple not knowing into wonder, is a useful skill". bothers me a bit. We have plenty of ignorance. We are swimming in our own ignorance. I know nothing compared to what could be known. IMHO ignorance is not 'mere' or endangered. -It's most of what we've got.

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thenewgreen · 4939 days ago · link ·

I thought this would be a controversial one. I was also bothered by a lot of the article as it is in direct opposition to some of my core values. However, I was really taken with the quote from Kurt Cobain regarding seeing photos from punk magazines and imagining what it sounded like..."imagining". There is a virtue in not knowing and letting your mind stir up potential answers/solutions. There was an episode of the TV show 30 Rock in which Jon Hamm played a character that was so handsome, he never had to work for anything. The result was a really handsome, uninformed dud. You recently posted a link to a blog post about starting a project quickly so that you allow yourself time to reflect on the task, thereby giving your subconsience mind time to work through it. Could it be that having the answers at our fingertips for most of our everyday questions is turning many people into "duds"? Take away most peoples GPS and they couldn't find their house from 20 miles away.

I agree that every answer raises more questions and the "blah, blah blah" -REALLY bothered me but I am nostalgic for the days when my grandfather would reach for the dictionary/encyclopedias that he kept at arms reach to find out clues to the questions that came up at supper. Now, one of us just pulls out a smartphone. Having to piece together information was part of the pleasure. You are right, ignorance is not endangered but perhaps "wonder" is?