Now that we’re in college and living on our own, it is up to us to take responsibility for all of our actions and decisions. Whether it is deciding to not post — or post — something controversial on social media or deciding whether to go to class or sleep in, we’ve all made decisions.

One of the biggest decisions we all have to make is to choose to educate ourselves or choose to stay uninformed.

Honestly, I don’t know why anyone would choose the latter, but for some strange reason, people do it.

[According to an article written by the Huffington Post this June](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-traphagan/america-ignorance-asia-
intelligence_b_5505032.html), “the troubles lie in the cult of ignorance and anti-intellectualism that has been a long-standing part of American society and which has become increasingly evident and powerful in recent years…”

So to break that down into something more bite-sized, people are choosing to blind themselves from what’s going on in the world.

If the fact that willful ignorance is a growing problem today doesn’t make your skin crawl, you might as well go make friends with Voldemort, because you are clearly deranged. Only the darkest of magic can put you under such a powerful spell that makes you choose to stay uninformed.

Don’t worry, “He Who Must Not Be Named” only applies to Voldemort, so you won’t get shunned if you contribute something intelligent and informative in your next class, I promise.

To help you get the picture of why I’m making such a big deal about this topic, I’d like to draw your attention to a quote from Thomas Jefferson: “Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other 85 percent would rather die than think.”

Ignorance is bliss? I think we need to change that saying to ‘death is bliss.’

Being uneducated about what is going on in the world around you is completely unacceptable, especially in today’s society. If you’re choosing not to inform yourself — and no, checking to see if a new funny cat video was posted on YouTube doesn’t count — you might as well give any bit of technology you own to a 6-year-old, because odds are, they probably know how to use it better than you.

In a society where the majority of people can’t form a well-educated opinion about something, we’re basically a bunch of blind pigs leading each other straight into the Big Bad Wolf’s oven. We’re never going to get anywhere as a unified country if we choose to be lazy, or according to Thomas Jefferson, die.

One of the worst forms of ignorance also comes in the form of making jokes of serious issues.

Now, you might think, “Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert make those jokes all of the time on their shows.” False! Their jokes are actual satire, and meant to bring about change, or at least call attention to how stupid some things going on in the world actually are.

The jokes that young adults — it physically pains me to say my peers — are making aren’t satirical jokes, because they’re meant to gain personal attention, not to bring about change. These “jokes” are just terrible episodes of word vomit accredited to the ignorance that makes up the majority of our country.

If we can all just take a moment to truly educate ourselves, that would make not only me, but the other 5 percent of our population much more happy, and dare I say raise the percentage of thinkers.

Crazy, I know, but try it out. If you’ve got the Education Patronum on your side, you won’t die, I promise.

It’s my word versus Voldemort’s, and here’s an incentive to side with me: I actually have a nose and people don’t want to kill me.

It’s your choice, though. What will you do?