The True Meaning of Ignorance

My cliché-radar has been working overtime recently. There seems to be a real profileration of native English speakers who are misusing the word ignorance. I'm terribly sorry to inform you, but a person who does not reply hello to you is not being ignorant. You are being ignorant yourself, however, for not knowing how to use your own language. Although the person who is ignoring you might be ignorant about good manners, chances are they are simply being rude. The definition of the word ignorant is less informed or lacking in knowledge. We all exhibit a degree of ignorance in different areas - nobody knows everything, therefore calling someone ignorant is not even a proper insult, despite some people construing it as such.

Suppose I couldn't be bothered to speak to you because I don't like you/don't care about you - the silence is just my way of expressing get out of my face. This isn't ignorance at all, this is being honest. You turn round to somebody else and moan to them about how ignorant I am. It doesn't make you look very smart, does it? Before embarrasing yourself again please take my kind advice next time, make an extra-special effort by opening up your dictionary.

Michael Jackson stated in one of his interviews that people were ignorant if they had a problem with him sharing his bed with children. What information or knowledge were we lacking to understand his behaviour? What were we ignorant of? His famous misue of the word ignorant was subsequently spoofed by South Park.

Sometimes foreigners make the mistake of using ignorant as a noun. This is especially common for my fellow countrymen as ignorant is indeed a noun in Polish. Then again, in English, there is the noun ignoramus used to describe an extremely ignorant person.

To sum it up, be careful when using words you're not entirely sure about. There's a similar story with the word hypocrite, but I'll talk about it on another occasion. Take a second before you call someone ignorant and ask yourself this question: is there any specific knowledge they're lacking and therefore ignorant of?