Questioning Propagated Ignorance

October 27, 2026

Do we push so hard that we lose before we start? I find myself asking this the longer I live in this version of self. Of course, in my youth I leaned heavily in the opposite direction. However, that person had yet to begin to understand life in any meaningful way beyond what I was told and shown. Mind you, the two rarely fit together. Such is often the human concept of life.

We like to reference the adage of teaching a person to fish as opposed to giving them fish. I look around at what makes up the world and can't help but question how many of us have been taught anything at all?

I'm currently in my bedroom. If I look around at everything that is in it, I could conceptually recreate most of the items given time. Especially if I also forced myself to build the tools. It would take a very long time. For example, most anything out of fibers, I could create or make an equivalent. However, it'd take a long time and they'd not be near as smooth. Especially if creating all of the tools and finding dye options not on a shelf. The furnishings would mostly be doable given time. The metal aspects would take a lot of trial and error as I do not have temperatures nor recipes memorized once raw material sourced. Anything plastic is a no go. I don't know enough about the process, but I do know there's multiple factors I'd not be able to do on my own. Same goes with any of the electronics. I'm also pretty sure I could not make a mirror by myself. I could with items already made, but not from the ground up.

Another great example would be sustenance. I can hunt and dress what I might kill. I could make my own weapons if need be. I can't say how accurate they'd be. I can fish and trap. I can garden, collect seeds, modify, I'm aware of and can identify native plants in my own ecosystem. I know how to capture and filter water in multiple ways with what I might find, and I can start a fire in multiple ways and keep it going if need be. The firestarting is easier said than done if starting with nothing.

Even having the understanding of how to do it all, it'd still be damn difficult. Especially if starting with only my bare hands. But how many of us have that understanding? How many of us would know what to do with the potential food once we had it? How many of us could tend our wounds? How many of us could even create a rough shelter?

I brought this up to a friend once and was told we've moved beyond the need to know. But have we? I don't think having our entire civilization running on items and technologies that only a tiny percentage understand is moving beyond. Look up the knowledge necessary for creating chips and processors and how that knowledge is spread throughout the world. There's one aspect that only 2,000 people at the most comprehend what to do. 2,000 people out of over 8 billion...

We constantly jump before we can walk. I get that desire. I leap first and figure it out or go splat myself, but I do like to think I've went splat enough that I've learned to contemplate the amount of chance I'm taking with said leap. I'm more than happy to share any skill I learn with anyone who is interested, and I'm constantly reassessing and modifying whatever it is I think I've learned. Improvement of skill isn't an option. It's necessity. But I don't believe we approach such things wisely.

I could be wrong, of course. I probably am in many ways, still I cannot help but feel like we're doing all of this backwards. I'm pretty sure we've set ourselves up for failure in a way that is fundamentally flawed. We don't just leave too many behind. We've forgotten what it looks like because most of us don't even realize we're amongst that group, and we've taken away the worthiness in those who do the jobs that keep us alive.

We are a strange species to be so obsessed with the cycle of life and death. At least in an abstract form. Reality being that the vast majority of us know very little about even the most basic of details concerning it.

Understanding matters in all things. We need to continuously seek it. Otherwise where does that leave us? How does it leave us? Perhaps, more importantly, why should we continue to exist if we fail to actively encourage such questioning and pursuit of understanding?

Not proofread nor edited.