Do you think it's good to indulge in ignorance?

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   Jonas Rodrigoposted 9 years ago

   Do you think it's good to indulge in ignorance?
   
   I mean, being held down by your own faults only happen when you are aware of them. Do you think being ignorant can be a good thing, even only in this instance?

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2. 71

   dashingscorpioposted 9 years ago

   
   
   "Ignorance is bliss" is a very old adage.
   I suppose it depends on what the ignorance is. You mentioned being held down by one's own faults. However if one is truly ignorant about such things they aren't likely to be aware they are being held down.
   It's (knowing) you could do better or have more that causes one to acknowledge they are ignorant about a particular matter because they have yet to figure out a way to make things work.
   Each and everyone of is ignorant about a variety of subject matters.
   After all ignorance just means (you don't know) about something.
   Everyone has their own idea of what is "important" for them to know. Sometimes we don't know what we don't know! (That's scary!)
   Having said that there are instances where being ignorant about an issue has led to breakthroughs or accomplishments. You or someone else did something that learned people believed was "impossible".
   Imagine for example a new kid transfers to a school and is confronted by the bully of the school that everyone is afraid of. The new kid kicks him in the groin and repeatedly punches him in the face until he drops to the ground. Now had he been "educated" about just who this bully was and all the things he had done to the other kids he may have adopted some internal fear and allowed himself to be bullied as well.
   The statement "ignorance is bliss" also alludes to the idea of not being worried about present circumstances or "what could happen".
   Once again you can look at children who are enjoying camping, participated in organized sports, going to Disney World, or simply playing board games. Unlike their parents they aren't concerned about presidential elections, a rise in interest rates, whether or not there is going to layoffs  and so on.
   The fact they lack any knowledge about such things frees them to enjoy the present. Essentially they're living in the "now".
   As we get older and more mature we tend to value gathering as much information as possible to make an informed decision.
   Sometimes we suffer from the paralysis or analysis and never move forward. An ignorant person learns by trail and error.
   "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread".
   Nevertheless if a person is "happy" with the way their life is then they're not going to feel the need to be aware about things someone else believes they should care about. Life is a (personal) journey!
   People only change when (they) are unhappy.

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   1. 0

      Jonas Rodrigoposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Very interesting insight! I love the Mark Twain quote

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3. 84

   tsmogposted 9 years ago

   In interesting proposition. A fun video to discover talks about the speed of ignorance in it. The video's main emphasis is the speed of darkness. (Link follows) But if one leaps about 8:51 minutes into it (near the end or perhaps a conclusion) there is the beginning discussion of the 'speed of ignorance'. The bottom line is ignorance grows faster than knowledge. It touches on 'The age of Enlightenment'. The video introduces briefly the study of ignorance - Agnotology.
   
   https://youtu.be/JTvcpdfGUtQ
   
   The complete video is well worth watching. Starting from the beginning may offer more context presenting the 'speed of ignorance'.
   
   Regarding indulging in ignorance I must admit I did that as a store manager many, many times. I assigned someone else the task of repairing a car. I was quite content with not knowing how to repair the vehicle. Perhaps I understood the science surrounding it especially with diagnostics, but the repair itself I was ignorant of.
   
   I am not sure how ignorance relates to being a fault. Again, with the example above I was not held down, even though I was aware of my ignorance. I can think of instances when fault was assigned to me when a repair went awry by a district manager. But, that was blaming me for not knowing the repair 'would' go awry, therefore I should have known how to do the repair.
   
   Here is where we may question that being ignorant is or is not a good thing.

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