I just concluded rereading George Orwell’s grim novel 1984. The book painted a bleak picture of our future; however, such a future filled with “Big Brother,” “Thought Police,” and criminalization of nearly everything we enjoy, never came to exist (and I will venture to guess that it never will). Thought the fictitious world will remain fiction, one pillar of the made-up governmental structure remains terrifying to me: “Ignorance is Strength.”
The pillar is something we should take the time to contemplate, but a easy integration is the idea of pluralistic ignorance, which was introduced to me by one of my close friends. “Pluralistic Ignorance” is the idea that we, unknowingly remain uneducated about an important topic; thus, we mindlessly go along with the decisions being made regarding the thing we do not understand. Maybe a better way of phrasing the concept is our populous is not well informed and is unconcerned with lacking such knowledge. This lack of knowledge allows for big business to exude high levels of influence during political campaigns, enables rhetoricians to persuade the masses, and helps to cultivate the love of Jersey Shore and the Kardashian sisters.
During reflection upon both 1984 and the “pluralistic ignorance,” my thoughts drifted to John Maxwell. Maxwell is not an authoritarian dictator, but one of the premier leadership gurus of our time (I would claim that he is a rhetorician). If you have never heard of him, I will tell you that his infectious smile dawns the author page of countless books and his uplifting style of leadership is not only informational, but highly motivating (I may have a slight bias).
During one of my readings of his leadership books I came across Maxwell’s five phases of learning:
- I don’t know what I don’t know
- I know that I need to know
- I know what I don’t know
- I know and Grow and it starts to show
- I simply go because of what I know
His reflection is simple, insightful, and a bit corny; however, his learning beliefs can be applied to every phase of our lives.
First we must ask, how do we know there is a problem? Whether that problem be personal, philosophical, cultural, or governmental, we must find a way to gain the base knowledge necessary for becoming upset with an injustice. We cannot face a problem we do not recognize having.
The simple understanding a problem exists is only step one and must be followed with careful thought and action to allow one to arrive at phase two “I know that I need to know”. This phase should be transitional because it is the realization that the concept in which one lacks knowledge is influential. I am very ignorant toward medicine; however, I know that I need to understand the field of medicine such that I read, follow and continuously work on honing my understanding of the complex field.
Even masters face this problem. For example, there is a reason why Roger Federer pays for a coaching staff to help him “know what he doesn’t know.” He is aware of his shortcomings; thus, he is surrounding himself with competent individuals who can help derive results. From such a phase, Federer (or any other sports figure who is elite yet has coaches) begins to learn what he doesn’t know.
From the point of realization of one’s downfalls comes the ability to fill the gaps and “grow” as noted by Maxwell. Once a certain gap has been filled, step five can be reached. It is through the understanding of a problem progressing through the filling of the gap that we are able to simply take the prior impediment as a simple part of one’s life (may I dare say habitually). Once step five is reached, the process can start back over for a new path of knowledge.
We must never cease opportunities to seek out our knowledge gaps and we must never cease the internal energy that allows us to progress through the five phases. If we wither in our will power, then we will eventually live under a cloud of ignorance, which is equivalent to strengthening others who do know.
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