Wang: On Knowing Nothing

I’ve always found it a stunning contradiction that students come to Dartmouth to learn and expand their intellectual horizons, professing humility and a deep desire to learn and immerse oneself in diverse backgrounds but, upon arriving, have fervent and unchangeable political convictions. It’s also particularly troubling to see how strongly political beliefs have been equated with moral virtue. There is certainly something wrong with a culture that deems “the other half” of the country as deplorable and reprehensible. Though it’s naive to say that everybody’s individual political beliefs are a reflection of what they believe is moral, it’s more important to note that people all across the political spectrum believe that their political beliefs are in line with morality. In other words, almost everyone, everywhere, thinks that they are doing the right thing.

Having different political and moral beliefs is certainly nothing new. However, the degree of hyperpolarization witnessed today is unprecedented. The two primary aggravators of this condition are the internet and insufficient education. Being a classics major, I am always led to consider history in my personal politics. Back in the days of the Ancient Greek democracy of Athens, people certainly disagreed. People were still criticized and ostracized for their beliefs. However, they all shared a common wellspring of information. There was no conception of political parties, and people all listened to the same people speaking in the Agora or on the Pnyx. Nowadays, especially now that most people get their news from social media, it seems that every individual lives in their own reality. The proliferation of targeted content presents people only with the information they want to read. Confirmation biases are no longer internal; they are now part of our unique external reality. Additionally, this targeted content is notable for its production of radicalism. People perhaps begin relatively moderate, but the instant they are determined to lean one way or another, they are fed solely with increasingly radical content. When people are only fed radical content, they do not realize how radical they are becoming. We see this trend on FaceBook, YouTube, and countless other social media sites. People probably ought to read more print newspapers.

The internet, however, is simply a tool. Like any, it can be used for good and bad. The end utility of a tool is decided by its wielder. Thus, we come to (what I see as) the fundamental deficiency leading to our current state of affairs—inadequate education. I attended public schools all my life. In each, the focus on education is simply the memorization and repetition of government-approved content. There is no focus given to critical thought and opposing opinions. Students are taught to memorize what they are told and be able to throw it back up on a test page. This was convenient because my memory is perhaps my only impressive intellectual asset, but not productive to the education of future voters and citizens. Frankly, I only learned to really think about politics and morality midway through college, while studying history and the classics. This isn’t to say that everyone should study those subjects (though I would like them to), but to show that my political thinking matured, grew and changed in college. The increasing focus on “employable” majors such as Computer Science, Engineering, and (depending on the coursework chosen) Economics, prolongs and aggravates this educational deficiency by continuing the regime of binary answers and lack of critical (which is different than analytical) thinking.

Coming from New York public schools, I was really only presented with Democratic political views. Children, frankly, aren’t much good for independent political thought, especially if they’ve only been taught to “know” things rather than think about anything. My political beliefs did not change the entire time in high school. I certainly considered myself a Democrat, even though I didn’t really know anything about politics except from whatever I learned in my AP Government class. All I knew and was ever taught was that educated, secular, intelligent people are Democrats and backwards, racist, bible-wielding hillbillies were Republicans. Clearly, I was not very mature back then, but no one I ever encountered ever challenged those beliefs. The only republicans I knew were the rich kids whose defense of their political views amounted to “I want to keep my money” or, more entertaining to myself as the single minority, “I don’t like immigrants.” When I came to college, I not only was challenged to really think about everything I learned for the first time, but I was exposed to many different, well-articulated political and moral arguments and perspectives. The classes I’ve taken, texts I’ve read and—perhaps most importantly—the people with whom I’ve had conversations all dramatically changed my beliefs and certainly led me to be far more intellectually-humble and understanding person. The most important thing I’ve learned in college is that, frankly, “I’ve learned one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” Obviously one cannot, and likely should not, go through life without developing opinions about anything. However, when we do make our opinions and discuss them with others we ought to keep in mind that, at the end of the day, nobody really knows anything; everyone is just trying their best.

The Dartmouth Review has always protected and celebrated free speech and other first amendment rights. Issues of political hostility and protests are not first amendment rights violations. As has been pointed out, peaceful protesting is perfectly constitutional. What is also completely constitutional is offensive language, hate speech, and other unproductive, purely-antagonistic behavior. It’s time that we bring our intellectual and political goals in line with one another. Just as we come to Dartmouth to become critical thinkers, so we ought to grow as political participants. We must remain intellectually humble and generously and authentically hear out every different opinion and argument. We must also be sure to attempt to carefully explain our own beliefs to others, who come from different backgrounds and have varying world views, rather than beating our opponents down with vacuous mottos and slogans. We should not go into any conversation with the mission of antagonism. That is nothing more than a harmful, irreverent waste of everybody’s time and energy. Every conversation, every speaking event, and every article should be an attempt to learn more and become wiser. This process starts by listening—especially to the people you disagree with.