We cannot know everything. I know nothing of Russian, the history of
the Byzantine empire or string theory. I admit my ignorance of these
fields with only mild regret and certainly no shame. You really cannot
know it all.

In conversation, if you know something of field it normal to use that
knowledge, and we all know those who pretend to knowledge which they
do not have. But it is remarkable when somebody denies knowledge which
they almost certainly do have.

This situation arose in conversation with a lady, Newcastle born and
bred, who had been away to London for a few years on the fringes of
the theatre world, and come back. "Drystone walls" came up in the
conversation. She claimed not to know what the word meant. Surely she
did! I believe that she denied it because it had come to seem to her
to be a northern word which it did her no credit to show knowledge of. 

Sh was like the very respectable lady who said "That is a very
naughty word - and I have no idea what it means"!

Some people take it further, they are actually PROUD not to know a
thing. For example (and I do mean this only as an example), some
people will say things like "I am PROUD not to know any Welsh. I think 
that one of the definition of a yob is somebody who is PROUD of his
ignorance.

Taking it a bit further, we have all met people who mock
other's thought-out ideas - "So much for your fine ideas Mr
Smarty-pants, here's a fist in your face!". We've all heard that kind
of talk. I would call it being a yob, or maybe a chav.

Michael Bell

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