The world has become a small village. We are living in the age of information, knowledge and reason. We have access to the secrets of the earth. It is the sky that now we are conquering.

These and more are some of the characteristics of the new century, of which the key to all doors is “communication.” We are proud to have means like the internet, cell phones, radios, and satellite, that we can see different events the moment they happen. Yes, the world has become a small village; we know what is happening on the other side of the globe. To us, having information about the farthest corners of the world has become commonplace. In our age, the best business is providing news.

However, the smaller the world has gotten the more ignorant we have become about each other. Let’s relax for a minute and look at this age with a different eye: the eye of experience. How many of us have experienced all the worlds we know of? Not many, because it is impossible. Further, not all of us are “specialists” of the world cultures, religions and politics. What about those who are called “specialists”? Have those who tell us about the world experienced it for themselves? An international relations degree holder hasn’t necessarily traveled internationally. Let us look at this matter from a simpler angle. Does reading a tourist book make us tourists? Does knowing the scientific facts about floating make us good swimmers? Some “experts” might know all the facts about the Egyptian pyramids or the Great Wall of China. Yet they will never know about or appreciate any of these two world wonders the same as do a simple farmer on the Nile River or a shepherd around the pastures where the Wall stands.

I am not suggesting that we all quit studying or reading books. I am saying that we are incapable of acquiring omniscience that the capacity of comprehending and experiencing the soul of everything is next to impossible. What we can do, and I believe we should constantly be doing, is to know that we don’t know. Let’s not mock a farmer’s simple mind or a shepherd’s way of life just because we have read a couple dozen books or that we eat with a fork and sleep on a fancy mattress. Let’s not be arrogant about our reasoning capacity. “Knowledge” can be total ignorance, and otherwise is true. How can we say, then, that the world is a small village when we haven’t experienced much of it? We know of certain world events the moment they happen. We see them; we hear them; we read about them. Does knowing stop there? What about experiencing those events? Isn’t experience the soul of knowledge?

News is the valuable merchandise of our age. Everything is a subject to its realm, from measuring the expansion of the universe to discovering a new virus (biological or technological). We tend to receive news from different media outlets as easily as a dry sponge sucks water. We absorb every bit of what we see and hear on TV, internet or radio as a green leaf absorbs sunlight. Few people might question the credibility of the news; most people take news as divine words that cannot be wrong. News providers can feed us poison that has the label of medicine on it. They can sell us the shell for pearl, while they numb our senses in order not to tell the difference. They even take many different ways to disable our capability to tell the truth from the lie. I know that these are only general accusations. But I will give one simple instance. The majority of people tend to quickly forget world events as soon as the comedy show starts after the half hour news broadcast- by world events I mean tragedies and misfortunes, for the businessmen/news providers are aware that others’ crying makes your smile seem more pleasant. What remains with the viewers, then, is an unconscious reactionary attitude towards “the others” structured by the way the news is cooked and served. Once the particular picture (of the friends and of the foes) is set, the news absorbers’ psyche becomes a stage where ignorance is dressed as knowledge and demagogy is the hero of the morality play.

Therefore, the small village is a mere illusion. Experience is the only line between knowledge and ignorance. To know is to not know.