Where Ignorance is Bliss, ’Tis Folly to be Wise

They say where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.

I agree - but only in some instances.

Blissful ignorance would have kept me from a lot of hurt. A lot of pain.

Blissful ignorance of the harsh reality of stereotypes and discrimination would have kept me from a lot of hurt and pain. Discrimination against being a woman, being a person of colour, being a lot of things.

Ignorance is bliss as a child. A child's hardest decision is the colour pencil they will use today, or which flavour juice they want. Children also have no worries. They believe in Saint Nicholas and the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, the Sandman and fairy godmothers. Their fears extend to spiders, monsters hiding under their beds, and supernatural creatures. Children also have no actual concept of death. They believe things pass away when they get old, but don't see a future in which they themselves age. They live every moment in the present.

In the real world, as a wiser adult, my mind disputes all I have laid before us.

The hardest decision is no longer quite so easy, nor is it so easily settled. As more knowledgeable adults, we know that Saint Nick, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, the Sandman, and fairy godmothers are the fabrications of storytellers. We know that those characters were created to instill a - hopefully - long-lasting sense of imagination in young people (that will inevitably get more or less beaten out of them during their time in the educational system). We know that, rationally, we should not fear spiders, nor should we worry about fictional things such as monsters or the supernatural. Once we have realised how short human life is, and have realised that our deaths are reaching us at every accelerating rates, some things seem less important than others, as we live for that short future that we may or may not have.

However, I also disagree - again, for some instances only.

I could have been ignorant to so many different facts about the English language, that being wiser has made me more knowledgeable (and more likely to win English Language points on any game show I may ever be invited to be on). I now know that the full idiom is 'blood of the covenant is thicker than water of the womb' and 'carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero' (meaning: seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future). This means I can use those phrases in their intended way. It may have been bliss to stay ignorant of these and to use them as they have been, but it is not foolish to know of them - in fact, I prefer it.

I could also be ignorant of my impending mortality. This may mean that I wouldn't live every moment as if it may be my last. Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero and all that. Is it wiser to not have known and to live in the present, or live every moment like it's your last and to live for our future that is ever-becoming shorter?

So ignorance may be bliss, but ignorance is also a poison. Losing ignorance may have been hard, but it also must have been necessary.