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Depends which starting position you’re defining ‘ingmorance’ from I guess
…or even ignorance
what a perfectly appropriate faux pas, pat.
Jon! I’ve just started a blog on being a vegan christian, and feel this cartoon might be very apt at some point in my discussion! Is it okay if I post it up?
hayles xxxx
ps Ignorance is not bliss, it just makes you feel that much more crap when you come out of the dark (which we all will do one day hopefully!)
sorry to state the obvious but… perhaps we all are, just we are ignorant of it?
Yes, it was a bit of a howler wasn’t it Jon
I’m not sure that ‘bliss’ is quite the right word, but I do think that we all, at certain times and in various domains of operation, choose not to know things in order to save ourselves from anxiety or discomfort; or because to ‘know’ would necessitate taking action and we don’t have a clue what we should or could do
That’s spot on, Gfeef: the problem with blissful ignorance, is that you are ignorant about the bliss you are experiencing.
Being ignorant can get you into trouble. Being ignorant about the fact that cars drive on the left in the UK could severely reduce a visitor’s life expectancy, for example. Not blissful.
Many of the things i enjoy doing require knowledge to participate in. Being ignorant of how to play drums would mean that i would miss out on all the bliss i have experienced playing in bands with peeps. If Jon were ignorant about how to use photoshop and the internet, well there’s a whole lot of bliss missed out on right there.
But, to misquote spiderman, with great knowledge comes great responsibility – there are some things it would be nice not to know. But knowing about injustice gives us a chance to do something about it. Surely its more fun and more rewarding to be part of the solution than it is to be ignorant of the problem.
Bliss is over-rated, i think. Where’s the challenge? the sense of achievement when progress is made? where’s the joy of new discovery? where’s the personal development in bliss?
“Surely its more fun and more rewarding to be part of the solution than it is to be ignorant of the problem.”
The less ignorant I get the more I realise I am part of the problem
hmm, the more I get to know you, Jon, the less I find you ignorant…
so get that goaty out of the cartoon!
‘suits you sir’, my dear Sir Gandalf, gives you a thoughtful, intelligent expression
I know when I had a Christian conversion of sorts, I was definitely blissful – I was in a happy-happy joy-joy Jesus cocoon and thought I knew the truth -But the more I delve into the bible, I realize just how little I know.
“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.”, Flannery O’Connor.
The truth shall et you free, but first it will make you miserable – Jamie Buckingham.
Cooperton – agreed, but the first step is admitting you have a [part in the] problem. Its the next step that makes things interesting…
“If ignnorance is bliss, I should be living a bliss-filled life”
Well, good sir, it’s likely you feel that way because ignorance is emptiness and bliss comes from finding what is fulfilling.
I like to think being Ignorant is different than ignoring select things that bring bliss.
Perhaps you are living a bliss filled life but are to ignorant to realise it!
anyway what’s a faux pas jon?
what are you, dennis? ignorant or something!!!
Only if you can live without doubt is ignorance bliss. The unknown unknowns will always get at you.
You were very quiet at breakfast on Saturday Birchy, Did you give mr Wiles a hard time?!! You remain ignorant of our conversation over our repast!
My spiritual director at the time introduced me to works such as The Dark Night of the Soul at a time when I was truly lost. These mystics helped me to walk in the darkness knowing God is there even if I can’t see her. Without that thread of hope, all the talk about doubt becomes an existential naval gazing exercise where God, love, hope become abstract terms not concrete realities. One of my biggest complaints with some of the postmodern mystic types is they tend to pontificate about these concepts as though they were the first ones to EVER think of doubt – the lack of a historical thread here to connect the present to the past is appalling. It’s that thread that gives me hope – I’ll get through this cause John of the Cross did and now he’s my guide – and now I’m writing about this so someone else can get through it.
I’ll spare everyone my thoughts about some performance pieces I saw at Greenbelt 2007 on the grounds I just ate my breakfast.
BTW-I also think that Jon and others on this board also play the role of guides carrying the spirit of the saints forward … this is just one of those places where you can talk about the dark night of the soul in a way that’s real and genuine. Very hard to find.
It seems that the less I know about a thing or a person, the more delusional I can be about them (either blissfully delusional about perfection or sorrowfully delusional about ugliness). Nothing is that beautiful or that ugly seen from up close. Ignorance is bliss and sorrow. And if knowledge is the opposite of ignorance, then perhaps knowledge is neither bliss nor sorrow, but just plain knowledge…
Looks like Severus Snape…
Sometimes ignorace is the only defence that people can put up to protect themselves. If a person is fragile then it can be a necessity.
However, there need to be those who are less ignorant as otherwise we would be quite happily wending our way through life with slaves and indulgences. Sometimes we need to have our eyes opened to what is going on around us so that we can be part of the solution.
there has been a worrying increase in the things I know nothing about…
(18) Oi Jon you watch it! I thought you were talking about a Fur coat until i wikied it! Yep that’s me Ignoramus, common as muck.
25. Robb, that’s why as a satirist, I try to go after the people in power not the person in the pew.
the millers… profound.
caroline too… similarly, there has been for me, a worrying increase in the things i don’t know i know nothing about…
i do think that the more i know, the more i realise how little i know… and less profound but, sadly, equally as true, the more i know, the more i forget.
I think Donald Rumsfeld’s much derided comment about ‘known unknowns and unknown unknowns’ was actually one of the very few sensible things he said
Jon, I have to agree with your last remark – but I fear the phenomenon is an age-related one
,well in my case at any rate 
31. But there is a kind of positive forgetting – I had a major falling out with a friend due to her alcoholism. Somehow two years ago, we were able to “forget” about a load of crap that split us. I have several relationships right now that I pray for a similar forgetting.
Becky, I agree – positive…’active’..forgetting’ is a good skill to cultivate. Even if one cannot literally expunge a memory, one can at least make the effort to free oneself from its power to hurt or to dictate and distort future attitudes and actions.