Re: Making it volitional

On 28 August, Sally Caves  wrote:

> > In the standard language.  But in some dialects, one can
> > use "ignorant" to describe someone who willfully does not
> > notice as well.  This is the origin of "ignorant" as a
> > pejorative: "You low-down ignorant son-of-a-bitch", e.g.
> > There would be no point in condemning people for
> > unintentional lack of knowledge.
>
> Oh yes there would, John!  Think of human nature!
> You low-down ugly, old, retarded son of a bitch.
> Presumably, being ugly, old, and retarded, as well as
> "low down," i.e., of inferior class status, or the son of
> a bitch, i.e., a "bastard,"  are all unintentional conditions.
> Human cruelty loves to pick on conditions that its victims
> can't help, and this has been the history of human abuse.

This raises a question in my mind:
    In a  population of (unintentionally) ignorant people, if one of them
unexpectedly gets a chance to gain an education but willfully turns it
down, will he thereafter be condemned as "ignorant" (with the sense
of "ignorant by choice" being used perjoatively) by his fellows?
Could "ignorant" conceivably turn into a "praise-word"?


Dan Sulani
----------------------------------------------------
likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.

Reply