Ignorance and Deafhood

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People continue to misinterpret Deafhood based on their ignorance. They either never took Deafhood workshops or never read a book and they feel they have a final say about Deafhood that they have no knowledge about it. The greatest type of ignorance is to debate something you know nothing about.

"How often misused words generate misleading thoughts." Herbert Spencer

I'm ready for people to point a finger at me and say, "What about you? Did you take a workshop? Did you read the whole book written by Paddy Ladd?" I prepare to say, "Yes, I took Deafhood workshops twice and I read the whole book three times for my documentary film script." I will attend another Deafhood workshop again in November in NYC once it is confirmed.

"The issues involved in controlling dangerous mercury pollution are complex. False and misleading information can have no place in the debate." Kathleen McGinty

Deafhood is not a specific philosophy itself, but it encourages people to examine their own lives and make their own conclusions. This is why the word "journey" is used. Many Deaf individuals will find when they examine their own lives that they are better able to view themselves as whole human beings and not from the limited view that focuses on the ear.

"Ignorance and inconsideration are the two great causes of the ruin of mankind." John Tillotson

Once we are able to shed the medical-pathological view that focuses only on the ear, we are able to join with others to fight against powerful social systems which attempt to define us. We can counter the bias, ignorance, fallacies and misleading information about being Deaf that harms the Deaf community and misleads hearing parents who have Deaf babies. It is important we spread a positive outlook of being Deaf where the hearing parents can instill a sense of pride in their Deaf babies once they find out that Deaf baby is deaf. The medical establishment will stop promoting the idea to the parents that being Deaf is "tragic." Paddy's Deafhood book helps us as Deaf people and helps parents of Deaf children to recgonize the domino effects of negativism and biased views on being Deaf that come from the medical/science/ philosphy establishment, the education establishment, and other social establishment, to us as Deaf beings.

"The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance." Benjamin Franklin

It needs to come us first as individuals where we see being Deaf as being a positive thing, then we can work with others on a cooperative basis, including the medical, educational, and other social establishments, to set up positive views of being Deaf.

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." Martin Luther King

"Deafness" is a medical term which causes people spend enormous time to focusing on just the ear. Deafhood is a cultural/linguistic concept which relates to the positive aspects of the Deaf experience.

"Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace." Dalai Lama

Some people choose to wallow in ignorance and it is their right to do so, but the danger lies in the aftereffects of ignorance that spreads out like a firestorm, which will do as much harm as malevolence when it comes to a lack of understanding. Paddy's Deafhood book talks about how we often get caught up in turning to Deaf-against-Deaf conflicts and how various social systems encourage this conflict to happen. This distracts us from focusing on the real issues and the influence of those social systems, and those systems just grow bigger and more powerful, spreading their harmful ideas to the Deaf community.

"The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding." Albert Camus

People may be ignorant, but they don't have to stay that way. We can tear down that boundary of ignorance, and then perhaps ignorance will go out the window. Take a Deafhood workshop and read Paddy's Deafhood book—that's when you will be able to throw ignorance out the window...

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!" Leonardo da Vinci