Introspective Investigation: Is Ignorance Bliss?

(A reassuring lie is so much easier to buy into…)

o take notice of, the craving for knowledge, and not comprehending of are all parts concerning the word ignorance. And three central forms regarding it are labeled as Factual/Object/Technical ignorance. These wholly go amidst where it began from, which is the Old Latin word for “Ignorantia”. Thou must understand that aforementioned Ignorance is the assimilated form of it and “nowadays” it can allow for countries that are already poor to stay poor due to absence of economic knowledge. One might say, much ado about nothing, but what does it mean in the eye of the beholder? Is ignorance bliss or blind, or is enlightenment bliss or beyond comprehension? Darkness, being the unknown, perhaps more accurately, the unknowable, contains the secrets that peer out at any who would dare stare in and not see with their senses. If one were to perceive, what might it look like in the eye of the mind’s eye? Knowing becomes aware of itself and thinks there is something to be known by a knower, yet truly only knows there is but knowing. Self-reflection: reflecting its recurring reflection like a mirror on the wall realizing the fairest of all is the Self-reflection. Revisiting if decided upon by the reader this particular concept “Ignorance Is Bliss” can lead to an uncovering…

–Thomas Gray–

Poetically and proverbially muses an Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College –  where ignorance is bliss,’ Tis folly to be wise. Applying more current vernacular, what you don’t know can’t hurt you, right? Rhetoric at best, but how this is interpreted dictates what this ultimately means to the mind that considers it and at which depth it is contemplated. This being said, it may, at some point, become obvious, if not slightly conceptual, that ignorance signifies the spectrum upon which our knowledge slides. From nothing to infinite wisdom, we are travelers. We embark upon an adventure and while we sojourn we may stop along the way and tarry in endless detours of fantasm. Remember, Plato said: ” Knowledge is the function of being.”

Author Thomas Pynchon, author who received an English degree from Cornell University in the early 1980s (1984), from Cornell composed: “We are often unaware of the scope and structure of our ignorance. Ignorance is not just a blank space on a person’s mental map.” This can explicate there is more to ignorance than people are led to accept, and additional hypotheses covering ignorance display that. All of these ideas are part of the science of ignorance and can furthermore exhibit whereby the lack of knowledge may be pertinent to better understanding. Ignorantia can seldom remain invisible to people and most people can either assist or maltreat by not understanding. 

–Mark Twain–

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” This quote is attributed to a man of words and letters, yet simply couched, subtly whispering wisdom of ignorance. Albeit one could make a case for being victimized, perhaps a key to the puzzle, but we can not escape our responsibility of either exercising the choice of the freedom of independent growth in conscious thought or not. Denial conveniently suffices as an explanation or excuse, all too often the subconscious defers to the unconscious being ignorant of its ignorance.

-Screws-

The fact that we think that we know what we think we know is somewhat of a conundrum. For example, wherever we are at the moment, our state of mind determines our perspective of the situation in which we find ourselves. That being said, the question then becomes, whether we are consciously aware or not: Do I repeat or do I evolve? This non-question, a sort of non sequitur, since the question is wrongly put, is an assumption based on a false foundational assessment. In truth, we are all evolving at uniquely different rates experienced in time. Like unto the threads of a screw, some are finer versus coarse…i.e…the fine-thread screws at a slower relative rate, minute changes with every turn; the coarse rises more quickly with the sense of potential acceleration.

-Perspectivity-

Ignorance isn’t just one specific thing and it is able to be overdetermined. One crucial point to remark on is its use in science moreover where it affects it drastically. What does it mean to say that someone only knows a particular fact and how is that fact/interaction maintained through shared cognitive perspectives? Are erroneous ideas characterized by incomplete ideas? Questions like these can show us how many elements that we simply haven’t considered yet (and yes it’s a lot). Social interactionists can be labeled as comprising of “description of language development emphasizing the role of social interaction between the developing child and linguistically knowledgeable adults.”- The Audiopedia. The developing child in this aforementioned case can be substituted with just about anyone – such as another adult or someone older or younger; furthermore, the same can be said the other way around. This quote reveals wherewith symbolic interactions are not simply just a means for intelligent expressions. 

Ignorance holds numerous applications as well: Politics having to do with the government – power using strategic amplification, influence with manipulation, personal attributes on

behavior, and its uses in education/citizenship. Beginning with politics, which most people are usually ignorant regarding, whereby they perceive things on the news such as how much they believe to be true vs. how much isn’t. Power among ignorance can arise with how creative solutions emerge from what we don’t comprehend. This means that ignorance can point to more solutions for difficulties if we don’t apprehend something. Moving on to the influence regarding ignorance on people or even anything. It can be related with too much information being shared that it happens to where you don’t know what’s the truth as well as what isn’t. And this may lead to you being manipulated by people around you or even by some completely unknown entity or force. This personal part of ignorance has to do with the behavior of the person(s) that are ignorant. From The Harvard Business Review, “The Power of Ignorance” shows this well. The quote ‘Ignorance Promotes a Fearless Conviction.'” This statement can be interpreted to indicate that it motivates whoever’s affected to embrace one’s ignorance. Ultimately, education, furthermore, citizenship plays into ignorance for the main reason that being ignorant can lead to being ignored, because people who grasp more than you and can see your ignorance clearly may not desire to be around you.

–Effectings-

Now moving on to the effects regarding ignorance, specifically those having to do with confusion, chaos, fear, concern, and misinterpretation. Confusion can be stated simply as people of vested interests who spread ignorance with or rather without knowing it, while chaos can progress towards a more transcendent love, virtue, and wisdom filled ignorance. The latter signifying more about, whereby wisdom holds the virtue of good judgment. Also, wisdom in itself is an advanced state of individual development that relies upon extraordinary knowledge. Wisdom remains rooted in perspectives, interpretations, values, and courageous actions. (Information regarding virtues and wisdom was obtained from the “Virtues/Wisdom Wikiversity website.”) Promptly moving back to transcendent love, furthermore the basis for it, signifying transcendence in the first place is because it’s exceeding desire, attachment, loss, devotion, sacrifice, and beyond the state of relation. To simplify the aforementioned you could answer that you love someone or something beyond your relationship to it, i.e. unconditional love. Now the third of these effects remains fear, plus moving into a sort of gloss over on the topic you may apprehend that fear is ignorance and vice versa. That being another classification for its actuality which is that ignorance can and is used as a tool of fear. Concern amidst ignorance occurs normally from group thoughts/activities people possess. This can be classified as pluralistic ignorance, which is defined as being “a situation in which a majority of group members privately reject a norm.”. Ignorance can also be viewed as not knowing of a subject’s entirety or even one’s wrong knowing of something regarding that. This leads us into misinterpretation, which sometimes can be sincere, just as how someone tells you something deeming they know all about it meanwhile in actuality they don’t. So they may provide you with false information accidentally, either well-intentioned or not. Belatedly, acknowledging and understanding things can reassure us that we do know about which we are reading, absorbing, and, ultimately, what we are talking about.

–2001 and Beyond–

A space odyssey, through time, the monolith depicted imparted a sort of evolutionary boost, leveling up, advancing toward the star child, might be viewed as ignorance, as it were, pulled toward wisdom, one might assume, bliss. Yet, the falling of the twin monolithic towers ushered in the advent of a new age which built on the cumulative psychological and physiological understandings of programs like MKUltra, a psychosomatic technology. Historically, propaganda has made itself known in legends and lore, but with the added capabilities of a centrally controlled digital realm, its nature can be cleverly and insidiously cloaked. The media manipulators and influencers of the MSM, mainstream media, will tell you their job is to present a narrative. Now, if this narrative is part of an agenda, it may be crafted as to its contents, perhaps with a “c” overt omission. The avid viewer, trusting the source, may be unaware of the potential of incomplete information, or even misinformation, purposeful or not, and deem themselves fully informed, yet again how could this be true? Perhaps a better observation would be well informed of the narrative. Following the narrative, if it leads to illogical conclusions, contradictions, confusion, and chaos of cogitation(s), the emotive then lends itself to a sense of concern, a peripheral but perceptible state of dis-ease. Without further elaboration, one can see that this conundrum of thinking one is well informed of the ails of the world, ignorant of the absence of complete awareness, is itself ignorance without bliss.

-Conclusion-

The journey of and through ignorance is a very intricate experience, to be put mildly. The innocence of ignorance beckons us beyond the boundaries of our beautiful boxes, comfortable comfort zones, sometimes silently and secretly, unbeknownst to the charioteer. It is the awakening of the awareness of ignorance that begins in consciousness where one may take the reins and learn to reign one’s sovereignty over hill and dale across the state of the mind. The world of self-discovering itself begets such aspirations as encouragement and enlightenment, embracing the spiraling cosmos spawning out of an invisible double helix. To quote the Spiral Staircase: ” I love you more today than yesterday, but…not as much as tomorrow ” is an extensive observational parallel. As our understanding increases, in this case, love, of anything, and, in fact, everything, it is as though our perspective rises, thus pulling up our ability to see and embrace new ways of wisdom. As from atop a mountain one can see farther all around, so, too, is one’s elevated perception poised for circumscribing. Then, one might be able to say, what’s not to like, albeit, potentially, an oversimplification, a worthy aspiration to ascend to a level above, even beyond, states of confusion and chaotic contradictions. Ignorance thus is seen as the road to bliss, the road one is taking, the road one has to travel, the road one, ultimately, has traveled to all-embracing bliss.

This article is part of an ongoing introspective investigation.

.MK1.

®™©

MMXXII