Knowledge vs. Ignorance

[Cross Posted on Think Bowl]

What good fortune for those in power that people do not think.

-- Adolf Hitler

In Ms. Shulman's AP Language and Composition class, the students recieved a prompt to the affect of:

There are two differing aphorisms around regarding truth. The first is that "knowledge is power." The second is that "ignorance is bliss." Which of these aphorisms do you most agree with and why? Support your answer with examples from...

Ms. Shulman called on me to give an example of how I would answer the prompt. So I blurted out an answer to the affect of, "I think that knowledge is power because the ancient Greek philosophers stated, 'The unexamined life isn't worth living.'" Considering the time constraints, I made a valid try at answering the question in a cursory way. However, after some synchronous reading, I've decided this question deserves further examination.

Clearly, this question falls into an "either/or" rather than a "both/and" dichotomy and that may be part of the issue. Asked to read a students essay, I ended up telling him that his essay was a little too wishy-washy. If he was going to write an argumentative paper, he needed to take a stand and, well, stand by it. Looking back on his paper now, I see that it wasn't so much that he decided to try the "both/and" method of viewing the problem, but that he didn't really skillfully weave the two aphorisms together.

In trying to attemp this weaving, I'm going to take a rather abstract view on this topic, and then wrap up with some more practical examples to see how the abstraction works in real life. Here we go.

The main problem I see with the first aphorism, knowledge is power, rests in the utter ignorance of the damage that a certain type of knowledge may inflict. Plainly, all knowledge isn't created equal, and most certainly all people are not equally ready to recieve knowledge. The assumption that all knowledge is power to all people is a bit simplistic, if not dangerous. Yes, knowledge is power, but as the Buddha said, "A novice may take a small bit of advice and bang his head against the wall many times with it" (my paraphrasing). Ignoring development is one of the main sins of modern society. We need not follow it in this argument.

In terms of the second aphorism, the idea that ignorance is bliss just feels wrong to me. At one point, a year or so ago, I was a firm believer in the idea that "the truth shall set you free," no matter what that "truth" was or how it was told. That belief evolved a little further into the advice stated by Gloria Steinem that "[t]he truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off." Ignorance, I thought, could not possibly be bliss, because ignorance is what seperates you from bliss. According to Buddhist philosophy, ignorance of the true nature of reality is all that seperates one resting in samsara (suffering) from nirvana (enlightenment).

Then, however, I learned, as I stated about the "power" argument, that all knowledge isn't the same, and that knowledge without compassion can be extremely hurtful. As with all things in life, both knowledge and people come in differing degrees of strength. For a fully grown human, ignorance never means bliss, and knowledge always means power. For a four year old child, however, ignorance of things that they could not accurately comprehend (like the fact that Santa Clause isn't real or that deat is very real) may be beneficial.

Now a practical example to test these assertions. Take the common trick question, "Would it be beneficial or harmful to a person if they knew for certain the date of their death?" In this scenario, both camps of aphorisms will yell out that their aphorism saves the day. The knowledge camp will say that knowing the date of ones death will help one to live a more fulfilling life. The ignorance camp will state that such a scenario would cripple a person, and that in order to live a happy life, that person should be ignorant of their death-date. I say that both camps are true, but partial. Many cancer patients know the date of their death, at least as proscribed by doctors, to within a few months. For some of these patients, the news is crippling, and they end up dying long before their deadline because they lose the will to live. Others see this deadline as a second chance, growing beyond their present condition, regardless of if they are to die. This scenario highlights the importance of development in fact giving: you have to be certain the person is ready to hear the information you are about to give them. This problem explores only one way the knowledge/ignorance dualism may be integrated. I'm sure there are many others. In a topic this nuanced, there has to be.

To summarize, the two statements, ignorance is bliss and knowledge is power, both are true depending on the strength of the "truth" and the development of the person learning the truth. Therefore, both when searching for truth and sharing truth, a person should always be aware of who/what they're dealing with and act accordingly, always with skillful means.

I leave you, then, skillfully searching for knowledge in a compassionate manner.