I was just reading about the mysteries of tin and came across this tidbit:
When tin is cooled below 13.2°C, it changes slowly from white to grey. This change is affected by impurities such as aluminium and zinc, and can be prevented by small additions of antimony or bismuth. The conversion was first noted as growths on organ pipes in European cathedrals, where it was thought to be the devils work.
I actually laughed out loud upon reading “the devil’s work” because it so perfectly illustrates how ignorance translates directly to fear… it’s frighteningly similar to the rantings I occasionally deal with regarding my RFID implants. It’s an almost perfect analogy in fact.
It all got me thinking about about the relationship between fear and ignorance, and why anyone would want to purposely avoid learning about a subject they were ignorant/fearful of. Could it have something to do with building their passionate opinions so fervently around their fears that all their blustering and any potentially immoral and possibly down right nasty, even deadly deeds committed in defense of their point of view and sense of righteous truth could all be turned upside down by simply learning a little bit and obtaining a better understanding of the subject? People will often commit the greatest evils fighting, what they consider to be, evil. If they then learn what they thought was evil simply isn’t, what are they left with? What is there left to condemn as evil? The painfully obvious answer is simple; only themselves.
1) ignorance creates fear (fear of the unknown)
2) fear incites action (fear directed is fear ablated)
3) action instigates response (the educated defend)
4) response suggests ignorance (the ignorant get a clue)
5) realization builds new fear (self = wrong/evil)
6) refuse to learn (the “i can’t see you, you can’t see me” approach)
Many people argue these people are stupid, but the truth is that most are just ignorant. Stupid refers to lack of ability, whereas ignorant refers to lack of knowledge. If you can successfully educate an ignorant person, they usually come around to either supporting a more complex “truth” than the one they had before, or at the very minimum they go silent. The trick of course is getting an ignorant person to understand that they are ignorant about which they speak, then getting them over the hump to actually learning about it… which is always difficult because understanding and education will already be a scarce commodity for them.
It is possible however. Just have a look at the comment thread on my door lock video. Somebody with the handle Alba12349 starts the comment conversation with “Wheter you belive in the bible or not. We can agree on that this RFID shit is just wrong. I will never take the chip” however by the end of the conversion he exits with “yes it is disturbing. ye I understand. I was just pissed off at first after watching all that verichip stuff.”, to which I offer to answer any further questions he might have if he just posts them to my RFID forum. I’m not holding my breath though.