A Passion for Ignorance - What We Choose Not to Know and Why - Renata Salecl Gebunden

Ignorance whether passive or active conscious or unconscious has always been a part of the human condition Renata Salecl argues. What has changed in our post-truth postindustrial world is that we often feel overwhelmed by the constant flood of information and misinformation. It sometimes seems impossible to differentiate between truth and falsehood and as a result there has been a backlash against the idea of expertise and a rise in the number of people actively choosing not to know. The dangers of this are obvious but Salecl challenges our assumptions arguing that there may also be a positive side to ignorance and that by addressing its role in society we may be able to reclaim the role of knowledge. Drawing on philosophy social and psychoanalytic theory popular culture and her own experience Salecl explores how the passion for ignorance plays out in many different aspects of life today from love illness trauma and the fear of failure to genetics forensic science big data and the Incel movement--and she concludes that ignorance is a complex phenomenon that can on occasion benefit individuals and society as a whole.