“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

Yes, from a man with integrity, morality, the best. We all want to be right, but we need to own up when we’re wrong, or we can never be right. Ignorance is defending ourselves, our point of view when it is challenged, through evidence or through someone challenging us.

In society, it's a defence that has become common place, calling any evidence that calls out views wrong, ‘fake news.’ Donald Trump was big on ‘fake news.’ It just means the person putting out the news is putting out his own version of news according to his beliefs, without evidence.

Ignorance has become a choice, rather than being misinformed, or through innocence. We live in a world where beliefs are based on feeling as opposed to evidence, which is not only harmful, but also dangerous, unless you’re speaking from the gut, which is a conversation with the universe and that works.

We need to be open-mind on our learning and thinking. When anyone resists learning, there is nothing that can be done, until they decide they want to stop resisting, and decide to change. The sad realty is they wouldn’t agree. But we can’t know everything, instead we can look to learn and prep-up on what we don’t know, or be open to the fact that as we live, we learn something new every day.

It is important to take a look at our beliefs objectively, in the whole. if they then don’t make sense, we should perhaps think about why and do our part to reduce ignorance. If we all did that, just imagine how much better the world would be. (Source: https://inspiritedminds.org.uk)

Ilana Estelle is a mental health and wellbeing advocate who combines educational insight with her personal experience of living with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities. She holds diplomas in Counselling, Diet and Nutrition, Nutritional Therapy, Psychotherapy and Counselling, and Stress Management. Through her writing, Ilana supports others in navigating their emotional, mental, and physical health challenges. In addition to writing for The CP Diary, her work has appeared in healthy lifestyle magazines. Ilana is also the author of three books: Cerebral Palsy: A Story – Finding the Calm After the Storm, Spirituality, Healing and Me, and Survival: The Covid Years – Time for Change.

Most people who read this blog

went on to read these blogs next
Date 23 October 2026
Author Ilana Estelle

Trauma and the Body: Understanding Isn't Enough

When the past shapes how we feel and respond We often think of trauma as something we remember, something that belongs to the past. The reality is we're not always sure we have or carry trauma. But the effects of difficult ...
Read more
Date 21 October 2026
Author Ilana Estelle

Learning to Trust Your Intuition

Ways to Strengthen Your Intuition and Trust Your Gut Having been locked in my head for years, I began to notice, listen to and trust what I later came to understand was my intuition in my early thirties. Have you ever had a ...
Read more
Date 18 October 2026
Author Ilana Estelle

The Things We Want to Be True

On Belief, Self-Deception and the Difficulty of Accepting the Truth We like to think that believing something is the final step in a process. We observe. We consider. We weigh up what we know. Then we arrive at a ...
Read more
1 2 3 … 531

2 comments on “Reducing Ignorance”

  1. Your post is so timely! Thank you. Just yesterday I grew from MLK's words about Sincere Ignorance by recognizing how I, too, have made more than my share of choices and stances that were driven by this very thing.

    Some of my conscientiously stupid actions have included enabling abusive partners and rewarding those who would exploit me out of the fear of painful consequences, such as being left alone, standing up for myself and maintaining solid boundaries.

    You nailed it regarding our culture and the institutions contained within. Many thanks.

    1. Hi Louise and welcome to the site. I'm sure we've all been there, I've got the tee-shirt too!

      But it is through those times that we learn the biggest lessons, how not to do things.

      The ones that don't learn are the ones that go on to repeat history, or are quick to give people the benefit of the doubt.

      I'm just wondering how many times you can give the benefit of the doubt to someone without understanding things will never change.

      Yes, culture is the biggest reason we continue to tie ourselves in, too afraid to break away.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to receive regular updates

Enter your details below to be the first to receive updates on new articles on my blog.