Introduction: The Problem of Cocksure Prophets
“Long as men are not trained to withhold judgment in the absence of evidence, they will be led astray by cocksure prophets.”
– Bertrand Russell
Every era has its “prophets”—the cocksure talkers, the emotional firebrands, the leaders who urge us to act now, to trust the team, to choose a side before we have time to think. In the digital age, these prophets are not just preachers or politicians, but talking heads, influencers, government officials, and even the algorithmic wizards who decide what information we see. They thrive on urgency, not truth. The faster they can whip up public emotion, the less likely we are to check their claims, demand evidence, or even ask questions.
The danger? In the words of Mark Twain:
“A lie can travel half way around the world before truth can put its shoes on.”
Tyrants, con men, and demagogues know this. That is why—across parties, across history—those who seek power always discourage the habit of pausing, checking, and demanding evidence.
The Pathology of Ignorance: Quotes and Diagnosis
Throughout history, great thinkers have warned us that ignorance—especially willful or premeditated ignorance—is the root of most evil.
- “The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.”
– Socrates - “There is nothing more frightening than ignorance in action.”
– Goethe - “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
– Stephen Hawking - “A fact is objective information. An opinion is a personal belief. Ignorance is a lack of facts. And stupidity is a rejection of facts in favor of opinions.”
- “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr. - “Ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”
– James Baldwin
Why is ignorance so deadly? Because it breeds crowd thinking (mob mentality), which in turn breeds tyranny. When the masses stop checking, doubting, and inquiring, the doors are thrown open for those who do have a plan: tyrants, manipulators, and oligarchs.
The Team Sports Mentality: Why Groupthink Replaces Responsibility
Critical thinkers like Ron Paul, Thomas Massie, Rand Paul, and others who insist on evidence and time for investigation are consistently marginalized—called “weird,” “not team players,” “delayers,” or “mavericks.” Why? Because in politics as in religion, once a group adopts a “team” mentality, loyalty becomes a substitute for thought.
“If a man is born ignorant, to parents that are ignorant, in a society that is ignorant, lives a life of ignorance and eventually dies in ignorance … ignorance is a norm.”
Indoctrination can be called education, hypnotism can be called entertainment, criminals can be called leaders, and lies can be called truth, because his mind was never truly his own.
This is the dangerous alchemy of modern politics:
- Emotional appeals replace evidence.
- Hero/idol worship replaces independent judgment.
- Quick, rash action replaces slow, careful investigation.
And the result? “Mob mentality” (Plato’s “ignorance allied with power”)—where the crowd becomes not just blind, but hostile to anyone who questions their chosen story.
The Role of Ignorance in Education and Public Life
“The only thing that is more expensive than education is ignorance.”
– Ben Franklin
Yet, as Noam Chomsky observed:
“Education is a system of imposed ignorance.”
The very system that should liberate the mind instead often trains children and citizens to accept, not question. “Trust the experts.” “Follow the science.” “Don’t ask, just do.” Over time, this creates a population that fears being outside the crowd more than being wrong.
This is how “sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity” (MLK) come to rule entire civilizations.
Willful and Premeditated Ignorance: The Moral Rot
“Premeditated Ignorance is the quality or condition of deliberate unawareness. It is when people do not know because they do not want to know. For, if they did know, they would have to take responsibility for the knowledge…”
Most ignorance is vincible (can be overcome). But to do so, we must want to know.
Aldous Huxley:
“Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know.”
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
– Stephen Hawking
People cling to illusions because truth demands responsibility. Once you know, you are morally bound to act, to change, to stop going with the crowd.
The Politician’s Playbook: Why They Fear Questions
“The speeches the tyrants give are to muddle the water as they are magicians with words trying to dumb us down to ignorance or stupidity, while flattering us and manipulating and twisting the information for us to trust their rashness in order to act now on emotions rather than logic.”
Political leaders do not want an educated, skeptical, patient public. They want an emotional crowd ready to act on impulse, “for the team,” for the flag, for the party, for the moment—never for truth, justice, or the long view.
“It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.”
– Thomas Sowell
Critical Thinking: The Antidote to Modern Tyranny
“The aim of philosophy is to bring clarity where there is confusion and understanding where there is ignorance.”
To break free from the mob, the spell, the cycle of tyranny:
- Demand evidence.
- Withhold judgment.
- Investigate before acting.
- Welcome dissent and questions.
- Be willing to change your mind.
- Prize truth above comfort.
Or as Marcus Aurelius put it:
“It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.”
“Having intelligence, we must not act in ignorance. Having choice, we must not act without responsibility.”
– Ursula K. Le Guin
Courage to Stand Alone: Leaving the Crowd
“Know that your work speaks only to those on the same wavelength as you.” – Jean Cocteau
Most people are not just comfortable in their ignorance but hostile to anyone who points it out. Plato reminds us:
“Most people are not just comfortable in their ignorance but hostile to anyone who points it out.”
And Bertrand Russell again:
“The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them knows anything about the subject.”
It takes real courage to risk being “weird,” “out of step,” “not a team player.” But every great reformer, every defender of liberty, every person who has ever fought for truth over tyranny has had to do just that.
Conclusion: Ignorance, Liberty, and the Future
“A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.”
– Benjamin Franklin
“Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one’s awareness of one’s ignorance.” – Anthony de Mello
If we want to reclaim our nation—if we want to resist the endless manipulations, the lies, the false crises, the waves of propaganda—we must train ourselves and our children in the habit of evidence, the discipline of patience, and the courage to think for ourselves.
Let the politicians, the talking heads, and the “cocksure prophets” rage. Let the mob call you weird, a maverick, a troublemaker. If you ask for evidence, if you take your time, if you think for yourself, you are doing the only thing that ever actually preserves freedom.
As Thomas Paine said,
“Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.”
Let us be a people who obey reason, who resist the mob, and who—when faced with the demand for action—always ask:
“Where is the evidence?”
