Ignorance is perhaps one of the most destructive characteristics we can have, especially since it is so hard to rectify; we are all ignorant of something and we can never know anything in its entirety. When I see YouTube comments about how someone ‘hates’ a certain person, making all kinds of assumptions about their life, or when I hear of people actively opposing certain campaigns or movements because it goes against the way things are and their own comfortable lifestyles, I feel frustrated.
I think its beautiful that people are using their voices. I’m not saying that people can’t oppose other people’s opinions. But maybe there is a right time to use our voices. We need to be informed. People are sometimes followers rather than thinkers. They form opinions based on the media, who twists and obscures, or based on the opinions of loved ones who are just as ignorant. Sometimes people are even blinded by their own worries about change or by causes that will help themselves over someone else, so they thwart anything that might endanger those causes they advocate. But we will never see any real change without looking at different perspectives and trying to understand them. There would be no strive towards gender equality or racial equality, for example, without this, because people would constantly just accept things as the way there are. Everyone has a chance to get a little less ignorant. Ask questions. Read and read again, read about the same issue and read about it from differing view points. Learn about what you are passionate about. Talk to people you love and talk to strangers. Form your own standpoint and find your voice. After that, it doesn’t matter what side you are on, because you’ve taken the time to understand both sides. You might even find yourself on the different side of the playing field to the one you expected.
The Midnight Station 