general ignorance

Author's Name: John Lloyd and John Mitchinson

People sometimes accuse me of knowing too much. “Stephen, you know too much,” they say, almost accusingly. This is a bit like telling someone who has a few grains of sand stuck to them that they have a lot of sand stuck to them. Considering how much sand there is in the world, such a person would practically be sandless. We are all ignorant, because there are beaches, deserts, and dunes of knowledge that we never even thought existed, let alone visited! Today, we have the entire storehouse of human knowledge available to us with the click of a mouse, which is absolutely wonderful and amazing. However, the greatest fear is that this knowledge will become just another holy text. What we need is not a storehouse of knowledge, but a storehouse of ignorance. We need something that doesn’t provide answers, but rather prompts questions. We need something that sheds light not on truly terrifying truths, but on the dark, damp corners of ignorance. This book in your hands is just a kindling torch that can help us embark on the dive. Read it wisely, my little one, for the power of ignorance is great.