Ignorance In Trevor Noah's 'Go Hitler !'

Trevor Noah's narrative "Go Hitler!" provides a first-hand account of Noah's childhood in South Africa and some of the conflicts that occurred due to the general presence of ignorance in South African society. Noah's narrative exemplifies Proctor's claim that there are three major forms of ignorance, stated in his article, "Agnotology: A Missing Term to Describe the Cultural Production of Ignorance (and its Study)". Proctor's argument is illuminated by Noah's narrative through his first-hand accounts for all three forms of ignorance in society. The narrative examples show how ignorance can be damaging to society through ignorance leading to arguments, causing naivety, and being used to maintain control.
Robert Proctor describes naturally …show more content…
Thus, selective ignorance is also ubiquitously present in all societies because in essence, it states that, while learning negates ignorance in one field, it also creates ignorance in other fields through not focusing on said other fields. This claim made by Proctor is again illuminated through Noah's narrative when Trevor Noah describes the schooling situation in South Africa when he was growing up. "So in Europe and America, yes, Hitler is the Greatest Madman in History. In Africa, he is just another strongman from the history books" (Noah 76). Trevor Noah's ethical appeal through his first-hand account of Hitler's significance in South African schools justifies the later developments in his narrative regarding the cultural festival, but in addition, it also compliments Proctor's argument that ignorance can originate from focusing on a singular topic instead of a wide range of topics. In Noah's narrative, the selective ignorance emerges through the schooling, and South Africa's education focus on African history instead of European history, which closely resembles the outline for selective ignorance provided by Proctor in his claim that focusing on one thing includes neglecting something else. However, it could be argued that the schooling situation in Africa is not ignorance through selective choice but instead the naïve state of ignorance due to the students' inability to choose between focusing on world history or continental history. The naïve state is also present in that sense, but the schools opting to focus on local history over world history supports Proctor's concept of selective ignorance and further develops the argument that ignorance can be detrimental in society by leading to a general lack of