Ignorance is not bliss
“Ignorance is bliss” is an often-seen quote with a seemingly appealing message. But let’s think again. If chosen as an attitude, ignorance for bliss would be like having given up happily the aspiration to be of help. Negative collective consequences would be one type of issue, the missed individual opportunity for true joy through service another.
Popular demeanors like ‘ignorance for bliss’ evidence that the quest for happiness has driven us into emptiness and carelessness.
In contrast, if we learned to be more awareness-intelligent, we’d have the chance to herald the start of the post-shallow-happiness era that will be about comprehension and meaning instead of ignorance.
Although today’s education systems provide information and knowledge, they do not ensure to understand in empathy, for which advanced qualities of the mind would be required. This awareness would also include the knowing about the lasting joy whose profound quality is way beyond some short passing showers of bliss. It’s comprehension and meaning that make our soul feel alive.
Bliss, happiness, and joy may sometimes be used interchangeably. However, joy might involve more virtue seeking and meaning, as compared to the more pleasure-based notion of happiness. One of the major enablers of happiness respectively joy, is personal control. Being aware and understanding means mastery. The spectrum of one’s perceived control through ability increases the more Awareness Intelligence is present.
Becoming aware is like lightening up mental space and making previously dark and hidden parts of life accessible to be included in controllable reasoning and decision-making.
Children intuitively seek joy by exploring the world and learning. The desire to learn is in all of us, which is a tremendous gift that is telling us “come, I show you the full joy of life.” Simple-mindedness, according to popular opinion, seems to cope well with life. Sure, diminished awareness may well be sufficient for functioning in a relatively tightly defined underrun — however, simple mind- over-simple life. A pronounced local focus of mind is doomed to become linked to difficulties in broadening one’s horizon when needed and is hindering the cultivation of diverse social interactions in any case. Over sooner or longer, every soul is revolting against too narrowly fenced personal development. People never regret what they have learned; they regret what they have missed.
Is ignorance really the cause for all evil? At least, being educated does not necessarily prevent ignorance and foolishness. Pieces of uncombined knowledge that is not put into context point to low levels of awareness. For example, an oppressive manager in an organization may be a loving father of a family. A nation’s tyrant leader may be favorable for many organization’s success. A brutal xenophobic may care a lot for the wealth of the natives of his country. What appears right on one level, can be quite the opposite on another level. There is a serious issue with how people come to restrict their awareness about their social scope of care. It’s not a bad gene that causes these troubles. But why get the dots not connected, even by otherwise intelligent people who can comprehend most complex systems of many types? It’s the unawareness of one’s lack of awareness. It’s the absence of awareness-driven motivation to be fully human. Without a mental connector to establish compassion towards all levels of social organization, there is no desire to fill the gaps.
Only when envisioning the ‘why’ one can speak about complex empathy. Complex empathy includes meaning and is a main source of joy.
Next time when asking a friend “how are you?” surprise her or him with following up with “why?”. For many, it will be difficult to answer; however, this is an excellent occasion to connect on a deeper level and have a meaningful conversation about how to navigate life. Why do I feel well? How do I see life? What is the bigger picture? Wouldn’t it be strange if living a better life wouldn’t include a deeper apprehension and socio-temporal navigation of life? It’s time wisely spent to learn to understand all that better.
