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.
