Putting ignorance to work

Once upon a time, I made a complete idiot of myself. Please don’t misunderstand, I’ve done it lots of times, only this one stands out in my memory; I still let out groans of embarrassment just thinking about it.

As a young under-graduate I could be arrogant and worse - occasionally over-blown with self-importance (what’s changed did I hear from the back?). I wasn’t unique, it often comes as a free extra in the kit marked “youth”, but it being a common affliction doesn’t make it any more likeable. And it’s a trap waiting to spring.

A college after-dinner-over-coffee discussion was taking place and one of my companions used the word “bathos”. I had never heard it before and didn’t hear it properly on first meeting. “Pathos” is what my brain interpreted the sound as. And I joined the argument on that basis. What I should have done, when it was clear that I was mistaken in some way, was to shut up and/or apologize and/or make a joke of my error. I did none of those but continued to dig the hole I had started until it was so big the only choice left was to jump in and hope no-one could see me down there, but the humiliating laughter followed. And I still didn’t know what “bathos” meant.

Eventually the message of the experience hit me. If you want to learn, don’t be afraid of ignorance. Embrace what you don’t know and ask it to reveal itself. There are lots of ways to do that – “I’ve never heard that before, could you tell me more?” “That sounds really interesting, I know nothing about it, please carry on” etc. Lot’s of people like showing off what they know and even those who don’t can be persuaded with a bit of flattery. And if these don’t work, you can always Google it.

For those who want an example of bathos or descending from beauty to the ridiculous, Douglas Adams' “Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” provides lots of examples. One I particularly like is approximately “the alien space ships floated gracefully in the air, exactly like bricks don’t”. Thank you Google and Wikipedia.