The Engineering of Ignorance

Written by Dr. Hamada Al-Antably

A term frequently used by my professor, Dr. Abdulatif Bukhari, caught my attention: “The Engineering of Ignorance.” When I researched this term, I found that its origins date back to the 1990s by an American historian of science named [Robert N.] Proctor. It is a science used by governments to mislead the public regarding various issues, running counter to the science of knowledge, which is an inherent right of peoples to access information and awareness.

The science of the engineering of ignorance relies on three main pillars:

Spreading terror and fear

Stirring up doubts

Manufacturing confusion

These pillars are abundantly present today. We live in an era called the digital age, the age of the internet and social media, where it is very easy to circulate any information that spreads like wildfire from an unknown source. You can be intimidated, fed false information, and misled for the purpose of spreading ignorance. These are government policies used across the ages.

In the field of sports, the examples are endless. The engineering of ignorance is an ingrained principle in the sports sector, especially in our Arab world. We do not even need direction, broadcasting fear, stirring up doubts, and creating confusion—those pillars upon which the engineering of ignorance rests—because we are all experts in everything, and in sports, we are all experts and analysts!

If you review the news across various media outlets, you will find this deeply rooted. We excel at trivializing matters and failing to search for causes and indicators. We deliberately exclude people of science and knowledge—those capable of extrapolation and deduction—claiming that their place is among their students within the walls of universities, until universities have become prisons for thinkers and intellectuals. Ignorance, or the engineering of ignorance, has become the prevailing principle in everything, and knowledge has become a crime punishable for anyone who seeks information, anyone who seeks to learn.

As the saying goes, “Silence in the presence of beauty is beauty.” Therefore, silence in the presence of ignorance is ignorance.

Sometimes, our crime is pursuing science and knowledge in a homeland where ignorance is its currency and its language. Try to examine what is happening around you or what you are suffering from, and you will find its foundation is the engineering of ignorance.

To be continued.

By Dr. Hamada Al-Antably