“A little learning is a dangerous thing”

A great philosopher once said that “All I know is that I do not know anything”. Could this be the
painful truth that mankind will eventually have to accept someday? People have asked themselves this question
for centuries, imagining what would happen if at one moment they learnt too much of this world. However,
very few ever considered the consequences of people knowing too little about the truth and how things really
stand around them.
Not many know that from indifference and lack of education have risen some of the most dangerous
people in our world, men who due to their narrow minds were close to destroying it. They say stupid people are
loved by God because this is the way they are and they can not do more. In the same way, educated persons are
admired for their broadness and even when they act against others we can always hope that through reason and
intelligent argumentation they can be made to think in a positive way. The ones in the middle, who are not
stupid but who also do not know many things are the worse kind.
Intelligence mixed with lack of a solid education and perhaps with a great ambition is the most
destructive combination of all. It is enough for a person like that to get an idea into his or her head, a wrong
idea, and everything can come to an awful end. Most mistaken ideas can be rationally proven wrong but to
people that can understand and know enough to understand. But when all we have is “a little learning” we can
not see the reality before our eyes and we can easily make bad choices. It is common knowledge that people
take the wrong decisions even when they have all the information needed then, how about when they know too
little?
A child will never understand why he can not walk on red if somebody does not explain him the
implications of his action. It is the same with these people: since they do not know more they act accordingly to
the little they have managed to find out and this is often very dangerous.
I belive it is hard to find a real solution to this problem but perhaps the most suitable thing to do is to
try to make people more aware of what not knowing can do to this world. It leads it to anarchy, tyranny and
immorality and step by step to the end. A painful end for the same people who were ready to know everything.

Alexandra Matei
XI A1