Ignorance is not bliss

Essay by moonboy1988High School, 12th gradeA+, February 2005

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In the world there are numerous lessons that can be learned either from experience or out of curiosity. People who are ignorant are the ones who do not know the essential, practical knowledge that they need to know in order to keep their position as thoughtful, social beings. Therefore, the quote, "Ignorance is bliss," by Cypher in the movie "The Matrix" cannot possibly be true. Ignorance is not bliss, because ignorance causes conflicts between people, makes chances become a big part of life, and makes fallacies into truths. Plato's equation of "Knowledge = True, Justifiable Belief," strictly applies to this topic as it is related to knowing the reality and knowing the false belief.

The world today is full of conflicts. Some of them are religious, like Palestinian-Israeli conflict between the Jews and the Muslims, some are territorial, like Iran-Iraq conflict, and some are political, like the internal troubles in Ukraine between the Democratic Party and the Communist party.

All of these conflicts are caused by ignorance that creates clashes between certain people. To name one specifically is the U.S.-Iraq conflict. It has been ongoing for more than three decades, and still, because of the different thoughts and ideologies that the two countries hold, the conflict is present. Unless there is a "true, justifiable belief" for the two countries, the war will never end.

In addition to the international conflicts, similar conflicts happen between some individuals or groups in smaller scales. The internal problem in the United States between the black Americans and the white Americans is one of those smaller-scale conflicts. The only solution to resolve these conflicts is to understand and respect each other's rights and freedoms. Ignorance would only deepen the conflicts between people, and thus it cannot be bliss. The "true, justifiable...