sophophobia

noun /sɒfəˈfəʊbɪə/

The fear of learning.

Washington insiders should note that the new Presidential Advisory Council is the Administration’s second effort to form an advisory group. When one of the Administration’s staffers reviewed the original list of committee nominees, the President was informed that two of the nominees had already died and one was close to death. When I discussed the original nominations with the staffer who ultimately decided to protect the White House from this gaffe, I recommended that he let the deceased nominees go through to illustrate the Executive Office’s lack of sensibility of and sensitivity to the reality of the AIDS pandemic. If my advice would have been taken, President Clinton could have excused himself on the basis of his sophophobia.