Ignorance is Bliss? Yes, for the Ignorant

In life there are certain accusations which all of us face.

‘Ah look at him, he kisses boss’s ass and got the promotion.’ ‘That man who lives in our building on the third floor, he beats up his kids, I can hear them shouting at nights.’ ‘Did you know about that girl who beds a new boy every day?’ These accusations are countless. And these accusations may also be equally true. Who knows?

“Everybody is Self-Righteous,” well said, Oscar Wilde.

Why is it that each of us loath the person who knows shit about us and yet remarks on our ways? The life I’ve lived is my life. The good, the bad, and the ugly, all I have seen. Then why does the strange outsider care to make a witty allegation on me? What has he seen? What’s his motive? What’s my motive to defend me? Why he’s wrong? And why I need to prove I’m right? Why the quarrel at all?

Let’s confide in science for a while. Light travels in a straight line. Says a ten year old. Genius. A lot of science later, Uh oh, wait! Light actually doesn’t travel in a straight line. The straight line is only relative to us and according to general relativity light can bend and curve. Bigger Genius? And what if a thousand years later, it doesn’t matter what light is because Human species are extinct and animals don’t need to study the damn tough science.

So, when everything that we conceive through our heart is relative... why do we go gonging about something? The person to whom you narrate your exploited fable of your experiences has no clue what bullshit you are showering at him. His experience may differ and hence the difference in his inference of what you say. Then why to say? Don’t you have a better way to spend your clocked seconds?

How often do we all utter to ourselves: ‘They don’t understand me.’ ‘He has no clue what I’m talking about?’ Also how often do we ask ourselves, ‘Why he needs to understand me?’ ‘Am I saying something so vital that understanding me will change his life?’ Hmmm... deep down in our hearts we know that the latter questions scarcely come on our lips. And this is precisely the reason why nobody makes any effort to alter his viewpoint unless one goes through the same experience himself and witnesses a fall firsthand.

You think you can learn from history? Can you answer why Humanity still is to learn anything from history? Earlier also people used to work in fields to feed the bellies of their families. Earlier also there were disputes over money. Earlier also there were rulers and oppressed. Earlier also there were wars. Earlier also there was loneliness within people. Earlier also kids used to fight their parents. Earlier also there were revolutionaries. Earlier also there were pseudo-intellectuals. Earlier also there were writers. Earlier also there were historians. Earlier also there were basic emotions like anger, hatred, guilt etc. Earlier also there were men and women who had meaningless sex. Earlier also there was love. Earlier also people used to fear untimely death. What has changed now?

Now please don’t be ignorant and go out of context to say technology has changed now. Do you really think that technology can triumph the very basic human emotions which have been with us since our inception as specie? Fact – Modern Homo sapiens came around 200,000 years ago. They exhibited behavioral modernity (rational thinking, planning) around 50,000 years ago. Humans began practicing sedentary agriculture 12,000 years ago. If we look on that scale, how old is technology, again? Sure a few things have changed, but in essence the existential (refers to existentialism - philosophy) struggle that your grandparents had, that struggle is true for you too. Essentially we humans may not ever learn from history. We learn by experiences. Experiences not of our ancient and now historical forefathers but experiences which are our own. It’s like no matter how many times you go to a stranger’s funeral, it won’t affect as much as a funeral of your loved one.

Alexander Pope already made a point, ‘No two clocks show the same time.’ We must accept that our experiences, our lives differ from our social circle. We must also admit then, that we are culprits of grade A in turning an ignorant eye towards many (maybe not all) opinions thrown at us. We are Ignorant specie – Finally, there I said it. Is it really as blissful? You remember the last time when a friend was narrating or explaining something to you and you went like, ‘Why is he telling me all this? What I’ve to do with it?’ It’s not actually anyone’s fault. With bullshit of much magnitude hoarding our ears day in and out, it becomes really troublesome to detect what’s genuinely worth our time so as to cater a deeper lever of understanding about our own existence.

Consider this classic example which must have happened to majority of us: A boy is narrating the plot of the latest action flick he watched. He’s narrating it with all the right antics to his father. His father is although listening but not paying attention. The Father thinks, ‘what a kid of twelve would know what it means to feed the family’. Yeah right and boy thinks, ‘why is Daddy not paying attention, it’s the coolest thing I ever saw, he oughtta know it.’ So, who’s the culprit and who’s the victim of ignorance here? Is it bliss?