Stevi+P’s+Final+AmEx+2014+Speech

=To project your ignorance is to account for your own stupidity=

To act as a judge is one of the noblest and most God-like professions, for it allows one to single-handedly determine which aspects of a story are true, and which others are falsified. However, to act as a biased and injudicious figure when faced with hard facts and clearly proven evidence makes you a douchebag.

A student in my class, for example will formulate his arguments around political idols and historical figures to base his half-assed argument. He will quite literally space out during entire lecture periods to reference these patriotic mascots of his ignorance, and therefore miss the complete other half of the story.

Throughout this course, advanced placement level classes have taught me more about myself than of history or english language and composition. I have learned to refrain from punching myself in the face on the days Mr. Geib chooses to read an eloquent and well-articulated speil of bullshit, to simply back out of debates when the opponent is a close-minded monkey who will attempt plug their ears and to talk louder than me, rather than qualifying their own statements, and above all, if a response is written in caps lock, it is time to shut off the computer.

So these socratic seminars that we host as a class with practically illiterate students who don’t read the text anyway (so how can they quote historical tendencies?) and under supported statements alluding to false biblical sources and paraphrased and illogical personas speaking for a God you have never even had a two way conversation with seem, to me, like you are speaking nothing more heavy than empty air: you are full of hot air.

But its ok because we have been conditioned to believe that any opinion is a good one and that it is valid. In primary education, students are encouraged to talk, to say anything at all, because apparently any speech is good speech from a five-year-old. When this mantra remains constant as our minds expand and our vernacular evolves, opinions can therefore be single-sided. I recently watched a documentary on the improvements of science and how they seemingly just produce more and more questions. Therefore knowledge must lead to ignorance. However, the ignorance I am addressing is not just “lack of knowledge,” but to completely shut out the oppotunity to gain more knowledge, this is to say “my not fully-formed opinion is correct because my pastor, or my mom, or Obama said so, and because they have authority and because I look up to them they are correct.” But the regurgitation of opinions that are not yours is exactly that: vomit of partially digested food, or thought. A strong stance on an ignorant position is not a strong stance at all because you don’t have a leg to stand on and you can’t counter my completely valid points because you’re not listening or because you yourself, strong advocate, don’t completely grasp the concept your vouching for anyway.

Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance ,or the lack of knowledge for whatever reason, is a detriment not only to you but to the rest of society.

Here’s why: You are a voter, you are an active member of this society, and you have a voice. However, what particularly irks me are the ignorant voices that will not shut up their invalid opinions.

Did you know we had an election on Tuesday? Yes, okay good. Do you know who ran in that election? Do you know what their policies are? Do you know what makes them qualified? Do you know anything about them other than their name? No.

That is ok, me neither. But you can’t make an educated guess to determine the fate of not only these politicians but the society of District of San Buenaventura without a legitimate reason to appoint these star-spangled candidates with a photoshopped smile and neon signs that have invaded your lawn against your will.

Voting should be a privilege, not a right, because those who have to work for their ability to vote will cherish the decision more. To walk into a poll blindly is to act impulsively and to hurt the fate of the rest of the district that actually takes this seriously and either benefits or gets disadvantaged by your decision. You not only are doing yourself a disservice to appoint these faces whose names sound more appealing than the other guy, but you’re actually just an ignoramus who is underqualified and wanted the “I voted” sticker.

Ignorance is the noose with which society will hang themselves.

However, I am no way am I proclaiming that ignorance is bad. Ignorance is also the basis with which we learn, if we choose to; we all have to start with a blank canvas on a prompt at some point. When one remains ignorant on a chosen topic with which they wish to debate and attempt to persuade religiously without proper counter-evidence or an open-minded persuasion that allows them to perceive the stated opinion with clear eyes and ears, that is where the line should be drawn.

Strangely enough the intelligence of the population tends to improve 3 IQ points a decade, excluding outliers which completely baffles my mind; where are all of the geniuses hiding? If this statistic is true, why do we find it so hard to educate ourselves on topics we know nothing about? Is it pride? Is it persistance? Is it the belief that "I can completely bullshit this topic and get away with it"?

In the America I wish to grow old in, I hope that in order to form proper and just opinions, humanity will educate themselves on all aspects of a debate, rather than form a single-sided opinion spree qualifying their dimwitted and illogical conviction or theory, judgement or idea. I hope that voters will vote based on political viewpoints and not on popularity or the visually appealing nature of the candidate’s campaign posters. In the America I wish to grow old in, people will show their passion for a topic on equal ground, and address all aspects to reach a desired conclusion.

Source: [|The pursuit of ignorance TED talk]