Episode 2: Ignorance is Bliss

The Comrade Contrary Files Act 2 Scene 1

To know or not to know. That is the question.

I am a knowledge-is-power, the-truth-will-set-you-free kind of guy.  But I stopped to think about it for awhile more.  Is ignorance really bliss?  Or not?  Never?  Or sometimes?
So I did a little digging about the origin of the phrase and discovered Thomas Gray's famous poem.  There, he nostalgically reminisces about the bliss of youth with its carefree days of playfulness unmarred by the dark realities of adult life.  The poem reveals Gray's double perspective that not only is ignorance bliss but knowledge is misery.

Act 2 Scene 2

We all will experience the pandemonium that is adolescence in our lives, and most of that is well, gossip. Finding out that Marnie kissed Jake behind the toilet block or that Cameron and Tony are now going out. In adolescence there is two kinds of ignorance, there is the dunning-kruger effect and then there is the finding out that your best friend is now dating your crush or ex or baboon. I myself don't much care for adolescent dramas like your best friend dating a baboon. I am however really amused by watching the dunning-kruger effect in motion. For those of you who don't know, the dunning-kruger effect is when someone, usually young, thinks they know everything about everything yet really could not differentiate between a dog and a cat. The smart people are aware that they truly know nothing at all. What I think is the best example of the dunning-kruger effect is those teenage girls who believe they do not need their parents (despite being totally dependent on daddy's pay check), my advice to them; move out, get a job, pay taxes, get married, have kids, QUICK! while you still know everything!

Act 2 Scene 3

Ignorance has its place in life for awhile, though.  Parents protect their children from knowledge which is too much for them to bear, too confusing for their little minds to process.  For some time, children can operate successfully under the "need-to-know basis" of parental protection.  But ignorance in this sense only works if there is an adult mind on the scene to do the protecting.  As we grow and become more independent, we must develop an adult mind of our own (in most cases).  Otherwise, we are in big, big trouble.  It's not hard to imagine what I mean by that, but I like how one person put it: "When you're an adult, ignorance-is-bliss today means you have an STD tomorrow."