Deep Thought for the Day

Mark Edmunson, in the New York Times:

…In what’s called the civilized world, the
great enemy of knowledge isn’t ignorance, though ignorance will do in a
pinch. The great enemy of knowledge is knowingness. It’s the feeling
encouraged by TV and movies and the Internet that you’re on top of
things and in charge. You’re hip and always know what’s up. Cool — James Dean-style
cool — was once the sign of the rebel. But the tables have turned:
conformity and cool have merged. The cool character now is the knowing
one; even when he’s unconventional, he’s never surprising — and most of
all, he’s never surprised. Good teachers, by contrast, are constantly
fighting against knowingness by asking questions, creating
difficulties, raising perplexities.