Agnotology 101: A
Lenten Exercise
Chances are few that the ideas to which "autarky" and
"agnotology" refer will be discussed any time soon in social
networks, in schools and colleges, in ordinary conversations about quarterbacks
and Super Bowl 50. The reasons are not
far to seek. Consulting references
beyond online dictionaries is not a widespread habit in the United States,
unless control of words is an explicit item in one's job description. Even in that situation, an American will look
for shortcuts. The primary reason for
ignoring autarky, agnotology, and other so-called "big" words,
however, is the threat of discontent.
Knowledge about culturally induced ignorance and deceptive isolationist
politics would promote massive discontent. We can tolerate unhappiness and dissent among
a relatively small number of Americans.
Democratic access to informed unhappiness about the severe limits of
liberty in daily life ist verboten!
Consider how such access would nurture panic among users of
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
American students might be infected by the joy of learning and begin to
make annoying demands of those who teach in and for America.
People who take it as an article of faith that anti-intellectualism is a
reliable sign of one's patriotism might gradually become heretics. And
capitalism might parade stark nude on Wall Street.
We hear occasionally that sticks and stones can break bones
but words shall never harm. The proverb lacks credibility. Guns and drones annihilate bone-houses (a
good Anglo-Saxon term for the body); words can harm with great effect. It is a shock to hear that American
government cooperates with international cartels to ensure that cognitive
dissonance keeps the machinery of democracy running smoothly. Mass media, national security policies,
militant doves and hawks, and the
entertainments that pretend to be news assiduously keep the majority of
Americans in peaceful states of unknowing. Our nation is the epitome of the
brave new world.
Common sense allows one to intuit as much without being the
least conversant with such WAKE UP
books as Jeffry A. Frieden's Global
Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006), Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
(New York: Viking, 2005), or Agnotology:
The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University
Press, 2008). Words are dangerous. They
are used to construct knowledge that condemns the majority of the world's
population to degrees of wretchedness.
Laugh if you must, but "agnotology" and "autarky"
are not words to rebuke and scorn.
Jerry W. Ward, Jr. February 8, 2016
