Education, Intelligence, and Ignorance

2/21/2014

It has been said that one can simultaneously be well-educated, smart, and ignorant.  I believe the anonymous person who made this statement would have said that ignorance has little to do with knowledge and intelligence; it has much to do with the absence of sound judgment and human understanding.  I recall an instance in Quang Nam Province in South Viet Nam when my platoon was moving from one patrol base to another (we generally moved every day, never staying in one place longer than two days to preclude the Viet Cong from reconnoitering our lines and attacking us under the cover of darkness) when approached by smiling Vietnamese children who offered to fill our canteens with fresh water.  These children were undoubtedly children of VC families.  As we were getting low on water in the oppressive heat, we offered candy and crackers in trade for water.  Within an hour, all who partook of the water (including yours truly) were sick with severe dysentery that lasted for two days.  I am sure the water was purposely contaminated with unmentionables, and the VC were in their tunnels laughing as we dug multiple latrines.  Our ignorance that day was incomprehensible.  Wisdom is the anecdote for ignorance, and it is founded upon the acquisition of sound judgment that was severely lacking in the leader on that eventful day.