Issue № 36. February 2013

Explaining the Rejection of Data and Intelligence in the Information Age: The Case for Aquinas’ Ignorantia Affectata (Cultivated Ignorance)

Senior Lecturer, School of Politics and International Relations, Australian National University.
E-mail: Michael.McKinley@anu.edu.au

The present age which celebrates the unprecedented availability of information is also marked by an abundance of cases in which populations, governments, and international agencies have transgressed against their constitutional roles by continuing to think, and act in ways seemingly contrary to the “value logics” which they declare they are informed and governed by. Analysts seeking to explain these individually frequently place the blame on such phenomena as information overload, and various learning disorders; others have borrowed from genetics and found that important information has been ignored because it had no apparent function. This paper argues that it is more appropriate, in the light of a substantial body of political evidence and literature, to understand that many individuals and organizations willfully adopt attitudes and erect barriers designed to allow them to continue in a course of action regardless of evidence that it is, ultimately self-destructive and possibly catastrophic.

Keywords

Ignorance, cultivated ignorance, information, intelligence, (mis)education, internet abuse.