What we call the courage of the ignorant…

As local elections approach, social media, television, and newspapers are overflowing with politicians. Whichever channel you turn on, either a politician or former politicians, journalists, and experts discussing politics have occupied the screens…

You try to escape the television, and they are there on social media. The interesting part is that we watch these prominent figures commit one gaffe after another every day, sometimes laughing, sometimes getting angry, and sometimes saying, “No way, this is too much. Is there no one to warn these people?”

The story is actually not about warning them or their consultants failing to do their jobs.

My dear journalist friend Nilay Örnek, with whom I worked at HaberTürk Newspaper, wrote an article titled “You Rise as Much as Your Ignorance” in 2015.

Her article made such an impact that, after a while, what she wrote was published anonymously on blogs and websites. Let us give credit where credit is due and recall that wonderful insight by Nilay Örnek…

“In her article, she wrote about how incompetence, ignorance, and the inept rise rapidly, based on the theory of two US psychiatry experts named Justin Kruger and David Dunning: 'Ignorance, unlike actual knowledge, increases an individual's self-confidence.'

The theory, called the Dunning-Kruger Effect, goes like this:

The 'incompetent' person who sincerely believes they are very good at their job feels no discomfort in praising themselves and their actions, stepping forward in every task, and aspiring to jobs they cannot actually do! On the contrary, they think they are entitled to everything!

However, this mixture of 'ignorance and lack of self-awareness' creates a tremendous driving force professionally!

The 'negatives' turn into 'positives' in terms of career. In the end, 'incompetent ambitious people' always and everywhere rise faster!

Truly knowledgeable and talented people do not step forward in their working lives by acting 'too modest,' do not aspire to high positions on their own, and wait for their value to be recognized. Of course, while waiting, they get hurt and withdraw even further…

This is perhaps the most common observation we encounter in our environment!

Now let's look around us…

Are you looking for someone who cannot even write their own name…

Are you looking for someone who does not know the districts of the city they aspire to govern?

Are you looking for someone who says 'swinger' on screen just to 'say a word the public doesn't know so I can look cool' while trying to pontificate…

There is a famous saying, 'Every nation is governed as it deserves'…

This has nothing to do with the nation.

If we base it on the Dunning-Kruger Effect, we can attribute this to truly knowledgeable and talented people acting 'too modest' and failing to step forward.

Perhaps these knowledgeable people do not even leave their comfort zones, thinking they will not be understood.

So, the fault is theirs!

Otherwise, the voter in the video circulating on social media who doesn't even know the name of the candidate they are going to vote for is not to blame at all…

In fact, according to the theory of Justin Kruger and David Dunning, those who do not know the name of the candidate they will vote for might even take the podium tomorrow to ask for votes…