Ignorance is Bliss
As far as expressions go, I'm beginning to really appreciate this one.
From a religious perspective (I'm not a particularly religious man), the idea of ignorance being bliss goes back to the beginning of mankind, with God telling Adam and Eve not to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Before they did, Adam and Eve were happy, living in blissful ignorance of anything that might upset or harm them (perhaps why that nasty snake managed to trick them so easily) but once the fruit was eaten and they had knowledge, things quickly unravelled. (I apologise if this is wrong and offends anybody.)
And so this applies to us today. We consume information at an alarming rate with opinions, facts, nonsense bombarding us all of the time. TV and the internet constantly giving us information that we don't need to know, but we somehow consume it. For the past 4 or 5 years, Facebook and Twitter were non-stop Brexit and now Covid arguing. TV and newspapers are no different, with criticism of whichever polictician or "celebrity" they decide to have a pop at.
So about 2 years ago, fed up with hearing about Brexit, I stopped watching the news. I stopped reading the news. I look at the headlines and that's it. I simply don't want to hear it anymore. And like a virus, it seeped uncontrollably into my social media. Before I knew it, my newsfeed was consumed with lies about Covid and opening that dreaded website just filled me with anger and frustration. So I deleted it.
"What we hear is an opinion, not a fact. What was see is a perspective, not the truth."
I've got no idea who said this and I've probably got the words wrong but I read it in a book some time ago and it's stuck with me ever since. We're surrounded with opinions which many believe are true and so it's repeated. We see videos that conceal the truth which are shared with great outrage. It's all too much. It made me unhappy and it's no surprise that mental health is worse than ever (Note - I didn't read the article, it had a headline which fitted my narrative so that's what I've shared. That's what you do on social media - only share what fits your narrative).
So what am I suggesting?
Should I be seeking more ignorance? Blissful, happy ignorance.