Ignorance Knows Best (Or Worst For That Matter)



Never a day goes by without the age-old question of "How do we know" haunting us. It comes with the teachers, it comes with the students, it comes with friends, it comes with a side order of fries. But maybe it's time we got over that question. Attempting to discover the mode of discovering kind of works like you holding a torchlight and you trying to find your torchlight in the dark using that torchlight. In other words, it doesn't work. Considering that light travels in relatively straight lines (nothing is not relative, or fixed for that matter, nowadays), trying to use one to identify itself wouldn't exactly be the smartest of things to do. Yes, yes, I know my theory is flawed, and my analogies bollocks, but surely you too tire of such pointless ambitions and incessant ramblings over what doesn't really matter. Not like coffee does anyway.

Perhaps the important question then would be "Why do we want to know? No, really." Some have said that man are curious creatures by nature, wanting to scourge out as much information they can about anything and everything. But we all know that there are people who wouldn't give a rats ass as to what's happening, and we sometimes are as guildty as aforementioned. Now, this brings us back again to this revolutionary groundbreaking question once again. Why DO we want to know?

Maybe it's so that we can have that sense of rest. Maybe it's so that we can now change to suit the situation. Maybe it's so that we can proclaim our knowledge to the ignorant. Maybe it's so that we can make sense of this dishwater world we live in. Maybe it's for future reference, to answer that question which might make you look like a fool if you didn't. Maybe it's so you can sleep at night. Maybe it's... I'm running out of reasons here. Maybe I shouldn't look for them.

You know that saying - "Ignorance is bliss"? I'm beginning to subscribe to such an ideal, and seeing that it's supposed to be ideal in the first place, I don't see why not really. If you contort your mind hard enough, you might come up with the same conclusion that I did. You know how those residents of asylums always seem to have this smile fixated upon their face? Maybe they know something we don't. Or maybe they don't know something we do. And after all, wouldn't you rather not know what the hygiene state of that makansutra acclaimed stall's kitchen (make that cookery cum washroom hub) is? Or would you really want to know whether the ten second rule or the ten minute rule took incidence this time? The more we know, the more we cloud our vision. The more we know, the more affected we get. Maybe that's why the placebo effect's so strong, and maybe that's why stereotypes are so wrong. But I'll leave the stereotype issue to Soyinka. Just for now anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that knowledge is bad. But sometimes, the more you know the more you doubt. The more you open your eyes to, the more cynical you get. Advertisements become blatent lies, and Intent gets strewn about the messy room of the world at large. It's things like these that make me want to stay ignorant. Why not, when it keeps the clouds where they should be, up there in the sky, and not in your eyes.

Well, now you know. And actually now, I bet you wish you didn't.

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