That was the line in an article I read recently on Jetwhine.com, a popular aviation industry blog. The main topic of the article was the fear of flying. According to the Journal of Travel Reserach (citied in the blog), one out of every six adults is afraid to fly.
The main idea is that if people afraid of flying were more informed how an airplane works as well as flying in general, they would be more likely to fly. The article goes on to talk about the economic impact that could have on the airlines as well as the economy as a whole.
I noticed another example of this recently, which is completed unrelated to aviation, but has similar (actually much greater) implications.
A well known technology entrepreneur, Amit Gupta, was recently told by his doctors that he has leukemia. He therefore needs a bone marrow transplant.
The problem is, he is originally from South Asia. Without getting into the details, this makes it very difficult for him to find a bone marrow match. Part of this is due to the lack of registered donors from that region of the world. And the reason for that is South Asians have traditionally been hesitant, if not outright against being willing to sign up as donors. One of the reasons cited is simply ignorance.
From the article:
“Ignorance is one of the reasons why we don’t get many people to sign up, and ignorance breeds prejudice,” said Moazzan Ali Khan who is the founder of the South Asian Marrow Association of Recruiters.
Part of that line above could just as easily be the one I have quoted as my title of this post: “Anxiety Feeds on Ignorance.”
I have used two very different examples. But they both have the same meaning. Ignorance creates problems for individuals and society as a whole. In some cases people are ignorant simply because they have no concept or knowledge that anything is different.
However, if you are even a reasonably intelligent person, there is no excuse for not being able to find an answer, especially in this day in age with the multitude of resources at our fingertips.
Refuse be ignorant. Educate yourself about what you do not know.
Choose to be a lifelong learner. Doing so will make you a more knowledgable, intelligent and capable person, no matter what it is you do for a living.
Source:
Anxiety Feeds on Ignorance