The opposite of ignorance isn’t knowledge. The opposite of ignorance is curiosity—the curiosity that recognizes we are vulnerable to falsehoods and can, indeed, be wrong.
That’s why the most powerful thing in the world is a question. Comments conclude unfinished conversations, but good questions (literally) ask for more. Shouts silence those who should feel able to speak, but questions respect them.
A good question treats the recipient as a thinker, as someone who has something to say, and as humanity progresses and borders blur, it is increasingly important to recognize the thoughts of those who are not us.
I recently met with fellow representatives of the youth and a local official to discuss a program that provides food to students who don’t have enough food for the weekends. I entered the meeting, without expectations and I left with amazement.
What made that meeting amazing was not the points that were made but what caused the points to be made. It wasn’t the answers that amazed me; it was the questions. The young people in the room who had campaigned for the program were enlightened by the questions the local officials asked because they forced us to consider what we were doing and why were doing it.
But the benefits of questions aren’t just tangible. Effective questions have philosophical benefits. Consider Socrates. His greatest contribution to philosophical thought was the Socratic method: a way of asking questions to understand what one doesn’t understand and create answers where there aren’t any, at least not yet.
What the local official did for the young people in the meeting Socrates did for the Athenians. Socrates inquisitiveness yielded insight; his questions made a difference. In fact, the impact of his questions was so massive that it resulted in his execution. He was found guilty of corrupting the minds of the youth: of asking hard questions that were rooted in skepticism and instilled good doubt.
Politically, we need questions now more than ever. Meryl Streep pointed out that mixed martial arts is not an art. So too are alternative facts, not facts.
It’s important that as the border between facts and alternative facts blurs we reinvigorate our collective commitment to the truth.
Politics involves balancing competing interests and finding paths on which to tread. Questions, more than anything else, help us find a bearing. Regardless of what affiliations someone possesses, there is no trait more valuable than curiosity.
The 2016 Presidential Election went the way it did because of an incurious population that enabled and honored a man who deserves neither enablement nor honor. Instead of asking questions about Mr. Trump’s motives for running, his conflicts of interest and his (in)experience, the majority of the Republicans who supported him in the primary nodded incuriously.
The voices of tolerance must not grow silent as the voices of anger grow loud. It’s no longer enough to be right. Now, we must curious too.
Curiosity turns ignorance into knowledge and closed doors into open ones.
Personally, curiosity released me from the shackles of homophobia. When I asked myself questions about the basis of my prejudices and flirted with the idea that I was wrong, I took the first step towards discovering that I was mistaken. Thanks to the questions I asked progress happened for me, and there is still so much to learn! I have no doubt that if I continue to inquire, I will continue to grow.
Questions are political necessities because political systems fail when citizens become incurious. If we wish to prosper, we must engage in what fights ignorance: questions.
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