“It is a common sentence that Knowledge is power; but who hath duly considered or set forth the power of Ignorance?” –George Eliot, Daniel Deronda
Many of my friends stopped watching the news on TV and reading newspapers and magazines after the November 2024 Election. And, given the chaos caused by Trump, Musk, and DOGE who can blame them?
Mark Lilla’s new book, Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know, explores both the positives and negatives of Knowledge. Lilla provides numerous examples of people whose lives fell apart after they learned the Truth about their situations. The prime example is Oedipus who finds out he murdered his father and married his mother.
Lilla makes a case for staying in ignorance. He cites James Watson, co-discoverer of DNA. “When Watson had his genome sequenced in 2007, he made sure that the value of his APOE4 genotype, which indicates the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, would not be published. He also stipulated that it not be revealed to him.” (p. 97-98) Too much knowledge can be hurtful especially if you can’t do anything about it.
Knowledge is risky business anyway. Lilla quotes Randall Jarrell: “A poet is someone who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times.” (p. 138)
What stance are you taking today about Knowledge and Ignorance? How much do you want to know about what’s going on today? GRADE: B+
Table of Contents:
Introduction 3
1 The Eyes of Oedipus
On Evasion 19
2 Veils
On Taboo59
3 The Hollow Men
On Emptiness 103
4 Lambs
On Innocence 143
5 The Once and the Now
On Nostalgia 185
6 Envoi 221
Notes 229
Acknowledgments 241
I spent years avoiding news and was happier for it! I catch it a little nowadays but I don’t pursue it madly!
Bob, Diane listens to NPR for hours every day. She knows more about current events than I do!
I have never been in a state of unadulterated bliss, and know that much of even my own life is not something I can control. I’d rather know, so I can prepare, even if inadequately. The Drumpf Circus has been the worst anti-admin we’ve had nationally in my life, but only by a certain amount…watching his ridiculous, mendacious, typically self-stroking and whining tirade of a joint session address did make me wonder again why so few voted, even if, again, more who did vote voted against him than for him…just not enough.
For me, what and when I can know, it’s better to. Blindsiding has never been to the advantage of anyone I’ve loved or cared about, nor me.
But, I’m always bitter on DST.
Todd, I’m with you on Blindsiding. I prefer to know what’s going on…even if it’s Bad.
Sorry, George, I could not hear you because my fingers were in my ears. Lalalalalalala.
Jerry, a lot of our friends have their fingers in their ears and are wearing blindfolds. The News is Bad and trending towards Worse.
Jerry beat me to it.
I’ve always been a proponent of knowledge, but after seeing where this country has gone over the past 8 years, what’s the point?
To quote Dan Conner on Roseanne, when confronted by someone indignant about how “I was totally right and she was totally wrong,” it just doesn’t matter.
You keep up with the news, listen to all the awful, stupid things Trump says and does, read the polls, and convince yourself that this time , surely he can’t win.
It just doesn’t matter.
(And don’t call me Shirley. )
So we (yes, even Jackie) pulled back. We don’t watch the news at all. Jackie hasn’t watched MSNBC since Election Day. I’m trying to skip most of the columns – certainly the hand-wringing, “what the Democrats did wrong/have to do” columns.
Is it working? No, not really. He’s still alive and President, and I still read three newspapers a day. But, it is what it is.
And get off my lawn.
Jeff, Trump has “flooded the Zone” with all of his antics. But this Circus in Washington, D.C. is affecting Wall Street so expect some radical changes in the weeks and months ahead. Trump’s donors didn’t give him all that money for a Recession.
I can’t live in a bubble, so I do listen to NPR’s national news (although how much longer NPR will be with us is debatable) and BBC’s World Service, but my blood pressure can only go so high, so I no longer get down in the weeds or read/listen to deep dives into decision-making and policy. It’s far too disheartening—and savage indignation can only lacerate my heart for so long.
Deb, the Second Trump Administration is far worse than the first one. Somehow, voters forgot that over a million Americans died on Trump’s watch and the Economic cratered. On the way to our local Walmart, Diane saw a sign that read “I VOTED FOR TRUMP. I WANT MY VOTE BACK.”
There was never a good reason to vote for Drumpf, even if someone might agree with him (somehow) on policy. He’s a foolish criminal. Certainly Putin knows this, as do most other people paying any attention at all. It’s like voting for Andrew Cuomo…and/or…
Unfortunately, the 2024 election came down to a choice between a candidate who said he would help the middle-class (he didn’t, didn’t plan to in the first place, and never will) and a candidate who did her best not to articulate an honest, meaningful platform. Another pivotal factor that no one seems to want to admit: Trump is a white man and Harris is a Black woman. With the GOP holding all of today’s political cards and the media/social networks complicit in amplifying Trump’s lies, the only hope forward is cultivating a more thoughtful, analytical electorate. Good luck with that.
That she is African- and Indian-American, that she’s a woman, that she’s a neoliberal who indeed didn’t embrace the good kind of populism even as much as Biden did, and the way she got the nomination (rather than people making it clear to Biden earlier on that he seemed to have lost enough acuity to make the case…not that Drumpf ever had enough acuity) all didn’t help, and I’m not sure who hasn’t noted this so much, Fred. We could also use an electorate that was less bitter and alienated and actually voted on election day, as about 3/5ths of the potential voters didn’t. But it is hard to argue that the two large parties did a damned thing to entice them into even voting defensively. It’s a bit like not noting that Drumpf spews tariff nonsense in order to (he hopes) temporarily tank the stock markets, for the benefit of short-sellers and sharks like himself…but that, and the winnowing out of the government agencies that actually aid the nation’s ability to exist and thrive, are begging for a recession to hit, and people far wealthier than Drumpf, or Musky and his vanishing paper wealth, are indeed presumably making their displeasure known.
Her ethnicity and gender didn’t help with childish voters, I should note…the other matters that didn’t help were things she needed to take more and better action with/about, as opposed to Shouldn’t Be A Problem, and never should have.