Willful ignorance at war with knowledge
Opinion: Western science and intellect are being challenged by conspiracy theories and the promoters of ignorance; facts don't matter any more, and the results could be catastrophic
Albert Einstein, it is believed, said: "I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
The Cold War he was referring to is over and the threat of nuclear war is somewhat diminished, but Einstein, clever Jewish man that he was, still had it right.
There is a full-blown world-wide war being waged today and the weapons used in it are loose tongues, typing hands, and fingers clicking "like" buttons.
The warring sides are on the one hand the "Western world order," ascribing to clear thought, and on the other, a growing trend of denial of science, conspiracy theories and a suspicion of education.
The destructive effects of drinking bleach can be explained by science, but some people will still feed it to their young children. Why? Because they read "something interesting," or "there's a Facebook page someone clicked 'like' on," or perhaps even something someone at work, or over coffee, about drug companies just wanting to profit off your illness so they don't want you to know about a cheap, natural drug.
So millions believe the world is flat, man did not land on the moon, there are no germs because we cannot see them and vaccines make us sick.
Ascribing to non-belief is growing in Israel and is spreading to every aspect of life.
We now live in a world with endless available information at our finger tips - and that includes fake news and conspiracy theories.
When this epidemic of "non-belief" begins to spread, a "bug" appears in our process of deduction, resetting our default to nonsense and not the knowledge amassed by humanity over centuries.
"I don't know that, Do you know that?" asked television host Avri Gilad on his morning show, when he dismissed findings that showed an electrical fault ignited the flames in the Notre Dame Cathedral.
His suspicion that the fire was started by Muslims, on its own, would not be so far-fetched, But Gilad is equating knowledge with non-knowledge. And that is what this world war is about.
Ironically the battlefield only exists thanks to scientific knowledge amassed over centuries, but for now, willful ignorance is sweeping the world, proving Einstein right.
If this trend is not reversed we are truly on our way to sticks and stones.
