Blissful Ignorance

“Ignorance is Bliss”

Very rarely do we take the time to truly recognize how little we actually know. We foolishly believe that WE have all the answers or that what WE do is always right. As a result, a great many of us go about our days striving to retain our aura of Blissful Ignorance.

We never take the time to genuinely understand the points others try to make, instead we quickly jump to judgement and disgust. When we witness events or evidence that actively defies our fantastical perceptions, we immediately blow them off as outlandish one-time occurrences.

Our bubble, the one we call home, is what we do our best to protect at all costs. Nevertheless, we fail to take into account just how skewed our bubble makes the world appear.

The Truth Shall Set You Free

“Knowledge is Power”

This is an important phrase that I have found myself repeating more and more often. Unfortunately, there are many people today that vigorously pursue ignorance. They strive to “remain in the dark.” From political issues to moral issues or intellectual pursuits of any kind. This isn’t a simple problem of being close-minded, but rather it is intentional ignorance at a conscious level. As a result, our culture is continuing to face a lack of critical thinking and plain common-sense.

This brings us to the impact of Blissful Ignorance. It is the process of doing all that you can to avoid learning the Truth, whether that is picking up a book on the subject or simply giving it a preliminary Google search. The practice of remaining ignorant also entails consciously ignoring things that may clash with our own personal beliefs or refusing to dig deeper into things that we may not want to see.

In laymen’s terms, it is choosing stupidity and mediocrity, rather than reaching out for knowledge and personal growth.

In order to put this in a way that most of us can relate to, take the common, “Take my word for it” argument that is often used. This form of disagreement is when someone speaks as if they are an expert on a subject that they may have little working knowledge of in the hopes that their opponent will “take their word for it.”

I personally experienced this last year during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Before they had started, I made it a point to watch the entire broadcast of the proceedings live so that I would know what happened word-for-word. I didn’t want to just get a recap of the event on the news, instead, I watched the entire coverage as it un-folded. It was good that I did, because not 15 minutes after the proceedings concluded for that day, I had someone (who freely admitted they didn’t watch the proceedings) tell me that what I had seen didn’t actually happen the way I had described it. I was astounded! Here was someone who didn’t watch the proceedings…telling me…that what I saw was wrong.

They expected me to just “take their word for it” because that is what most people do. They leave exhaustive research to others (whether the media or someone who is more interested in a specific topic) and then read the “SparkNotes” before spreading what they had learned to others.

This is Blissful Ignorance in its purest form.

It’s Only Up from Here

The question now becomes, “What do we do to prevent Blissful Ignorance?”

The simplest answer:

Never strive for mediocrity, do your research, and never trust someone else to give you the Truth.

All in all, resisting the temptation of living in Blissful Ignorance is a personal challenge we all must overcome. No one can help you, but YOU. Therefore, it is up to each one of us to focus on learning about the things that we do not understand and preventing our bubble from skewing our perspective.

If you don’t understand something or if you make a mistake…own it. That isn’t an issue. What is an issue is pretending that your mistake or lack of knowledge is somehow a good thing.

“Knowledge is power, and Ignorance is Bliss.”

Deciding to be informed is certainly not the easiest path, but since when was anything worthwhile ever easy?

“To each his suff’rings: all are men,
Condemn’d alike to groan,
The tender for another’s pain;
Th’ unfeeling for his own.
Yet ah! why should they know their fate?
Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies.
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss,
’Tis folly to be wise.”

Excerpt from “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College” by Thomas Gray

Originally published at https://freedomsreach.com on June 3, 2019.