Ignorance, Indifference and Inertia
John Hanna
[Reprinted from Land and Freedom,
November-December 1939]
Ignorance, Indifference and Inertia impede progress in the twentieth
century as they have delayed progress in all the centuries. Ignorance
is not simply an attribute of the unlearned, the people who have not
had the advantage of the thing we call education. It is found very
frequently among the highly educated. Ignorance consists in the
disposition to ignore the ideas advanced in disagreement with
prevailing belief or custom. This has been true in all times. When
Roger Bacon tried to establish or obtain recognition of the value of
experimental science as opposed to the old system of authoritarian
scholasticism he met the antagonism of the so-called educated; some
actively interfered with his work many more simply ignored his
teachings. The seem has changed. Experimental science has become the
order of the day; colleges and industrial plants have their research
laboratories in a quest for new knowledge or for a better application
of the old.
The Roger Bacons of the twentieth century are stirring the world with
proposals for social and economic betterment. History repeats itself.
These efforts are being ignored. This Ignorance is very prevalent
among the people who dislike any disturbance of the established order.
Such is the attitude of Ignorance.
Indifference is the natural child of ignorance and bean a strong
resemblance to its parent. Indifference is negative in all respects
except in that of standing in the light of others. Indifference to art
never painted a picture carved a statue or wrote a poem. Indifference
to mechanical achievement never invented a machine. Indifference to
sanitation or therapeutics never isolated a microbe or founded a
hospital. Indifference to economic principles never solved a social
problem, never even understood one. Men who are so indifferent to
social and economic problems that they never read a serious book or
listen to a serious discussion of them still feel competent to express
an opinion on any proposal for social betterment or economic change.
This feeling of competence is usually the product of political or
business affiliations and is governed by them; allaying any desire for
a deeper knowledge of the subject. Such is the attitude of
Indifference!
Inertia in the sphere of human conduct bears the character it has in
the physical realm, a tendency when a rest to remain at rest and when
in motion to continue in motion in a straight line unless acted upon
by an outside force. Human inertia is a compound of ignorance and
indifference. How often one hears "There has always been greed in
the world and there always will be." "We have always had
wars and we always will." Some take refuge in a quotation from
Scripture, "The poor ye have always with you." Such inertia
is sloth; had it prevailed at all times we would still have the
ox-cart and the sail as our only means of transportation, millions
would still be dying in epidemics of cholera and yellow fever. Inertia
in human affairs results in the retention of a bad system or no better
reason than that of precedent. Such is the attitude of Inertia!
There is available a body of fact, in support of the principle of
land-value taxation, which is as definite and is valid as any upon
which the laws of physics and chemistry are founded. Someone has said,
"Find the acts, face the facts, follow the facts." A good
rule! But ignorance never yet found a fact, Indifference faces fact
and fallacy with equal unconcern and Inertia follows only precedent
until acted upon by some outside force, a Roger Bacon or a Henry
George.
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