Apathy, the real monster in our world We all have things that we don’t care about yet are forced to take part in anyways, our younger brother’s piano recital, our cousins track meet, the list goes on. We all miss things that we care about, too. This happens often just because we were unaware of it happening. These both represent two attitudes: apathy and ignorance. Apathy is a refusal to understand another point of view and or a dislike of something. Ignorance is simply not having knowledge about a subject(s). So which is worse? Apathy or ignorance, two relatively similar things. They both cause things to be left out and forgotten. This can range from anything as small as getting the groceries to poverty stricken countries that need help. Apathy is more often a choice while ignorance is generally not done on purpose. Apathy is harder to fix, too. You have to convince and change someone’s point of view, while you only need to teach people to fix ignorance. Apathy can also result in some very hurtful actions in people’s refusal to see another way. Some may say that ignorance is worse because there are simply so many who aren’t educated enough to fix big problems like poverty, but not everyone has to. We all have opinions. And opinions, similar to rights, stop as soon as they interfere with others’. We all get caught up in …show more content…
In the article Which is worse, ignorance or apathy?, it told the story of two friends who went on a trip. They came across a bridge one had researched the bridge and knew it was unstable and the other had no clue it was unsafe. They both cross the bridge, the knowledgeable one pushing the information aside, and plummet to their death. One died of apathy, while the other died of ignorance. The one with the knowledge of the danger could have prevented both of their deaths, but he didn’t think. People don’t think and they cause the downfall of themselves and people
As seen in the novel Night and Fahrenheit 451 , ignorance can perpetuate the destruction of a society by not listening to the warnings of others and therefore not looking at another viewpoint of an idea. This occurs early in the text, when Moishe reappears in the town and warns his fellow Jews of the Germans. However, they disregard these claims, and would rather focus on the pleasures they have in life: “He told me what had happened to him… they were forced to dig trenches. When they were done their work, the men from the Gestapo began theirs. Without passion or haste, they shot their prisoners, who were forced to approach the trench one by one and offer their necks...How had he, Moishe the Beadle, been able to escape? By a miracle. He was wounded in the leg and left for dead…but people not only refused to believe his tales, they refused to listen.” (Wiesel 7). As seen in this quote Moishe was giving his fellow Jews a warning about the Germans and they refused to listen to him about it. This ignorance caused them later in the book to become victims of the Holocaust. This subclaim can also be supported by Ray Bradbury’s novel Fah...
Society is built on the fact that everyone is different: different gender, different hair color, different body types, and, most importantly, different opinions. Although conflict stems from different opinions, humans can not help but have their own thoughts and feelings about every situation. Different opinions, such as democrats vs. republicans or pro-life vs. pro-birth, are just a few examples, on the neverending list, of society spitting their views on a topic. Despite the fact that everyone is so different, people can learn from each other and grow their opinions after hearing the other “side of the story”. We may not always agree with each other, but we should just listen, understand, and respect the fact that everyone has different opinions.
[23] Diagnosis may be simple, but remedy is never easy. Awareness is the key. As more people become more aware of the half-truths, distortions, injustices, and outright oppressions occurring in the world today, the future will become less of a variable. Americans can gain conscious control of their future, making choices that will allow for freedom and equality, for spiritual growth and renewal. A nation cannot learn from its own mistakes unless and until those mistakes are admitted and reconciled. That process must start now.
Pretend that you are class president. One day, you and your best friend since kindergarten have a huge fight, so as revenge, he releases one of your deepest, darkest secrets out into the world. The secret passes on all around and soon the whole school knows. Now it is too late to try and fix this because dark secrets are hard to forget. Ultimately, this causes all your peers to look at you in a different and bad way resulting in your reputation being ruined. You probably won’t be voted for class president ever again. This situation proves that “What you don’t know can’t hurt you,” is not always true and can do the exact opposite and cause destruction. William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies shows that ignorance can become a vicious monster and destroy. This can also be seen in many other novels, such as Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451 and in everyday life. Golding and Bradbury also provide characters that show knowledge, at times, is a good thing.
In the novel, Kindred, written by Octavia E. Butler, many characters throughout the book displays ignorance versus knowledge which, like MLK has said, is dangerous. The main character, Dana, time travels from 1976 back to the early nineteenth century. When she time travels, she pops in and out of places at random times; most of the time, it happens when people are around. In this novel, many different characters show their ignorance by displaying their emotions as if they did not see anything happen at all. This act can be easily associated with society today. Hypothetically, if a person sees a ghost, they tell themselves that it would never happen again, and this, most of the time, is not the case. Therefore, it is a fact that ignorance and knowledge will always be a problem that society will have due to people’s refusal to accept what they see happen right in front of them.
Ignorance is bliss as one who is ignorant does not fully understand all the issues occurring around him or her and is therefore somewhat innocent to them. In “Revelation”, by Flannery O’Conner, the main character Mrs. Turpin is ignorant of the fact she is the same as everyone else, but she has different classifications of people of which she is of the higher category. O’Connor uses “Revelation” as a tool to represent people who are both ignorant and not ignorant and what it almost takes for some people to fully overcome ignorance.
In today’s society, a lot of what we are exposed to in the media contains bias, resulting in not entirely accurate information. We can choose what we want to believe ignoring certain facts, which could affect the way we live regarding health and happiness. Ignorance is not “bliss”, but can have a negative impact on our health if we choose to ignore what is happening in the world around us. No matter how much you try to silence your surroundings, your culture, what you identify with, and your habits, will all speak for themself. Silence is the loudest of them all.
Ignorance is the term used to describe someone who doesn’t know about something. Ignorance may sound familiar as it is used in the proverb, “Ignorance is Bliss”. According to the dictionary, “Not knowing something is often more comfortable than knowing it” (Dictionary 1). The banker lacks the knowledge of the prisoner, and he lacks the prisoner’s time and ability to think over materialism, but the banker has what the prisoner doesn’t, which is emotion. The two characters are both ignorant in their own ways. The prisoner lacks emotional depth while the banker lacks intelligence. Whoever is right is up to the reader and their own views on life.
Not only does ignorance have a negative impact on people, it is also “the root and stem of all evil” (Plato), which can destroy a person. To start off, self-superiority can cloud a person’s judgment; making it evident that intelligence can easily be lost to arrogance. To add on, anger and the human tendency to make rash decisions can also contribute to ignorance, resulting in eventual downfall. Lastly, unconscious attempts to blind yourself from the truth can result in the committing of major sins. Tragedy occurs in “Oedipus the King” when ignorance causes disastrous events, proving that lack of knowledge can result in their misfortune.
The veil of ignorance means to not know how specific deliberations will affect ones over a particular case and being obliged to evaluate evaluate principles solely on the basis of the general considerations. These people characterize things into two groups. Things that they do not know and are ignored, and things that they must know. Things that they often ignore consist of class positions, social statuses, distribution of goods, and natural assets and abilities. Things within the veil of ignorance that usually known are basic features of human social life, understanding political affairs, principles of economic theories, philosophy, and social organizations. The people incharge of taking a stand on the original position then often use these as a guide to make decisions on new laws and other necessities of a
...g it. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
But when we consider ignorance along with agnosticism which is a mode of the intellective process, there is an obvious contradiction. Because ignorance is not just mere lack of a knowing, conversely, every ignorance is always a process of being ignorant of something quite precise. In other words, one who ignores knows in a particular form what it is that he ignores. For example, a person who has no knowledge on economics is not ignorant of what a Cobb-Douglas equation is, because he lacks information to such equations. Only the man who is told about Cobb-Douglas equations, and does not know what we are talking about because he does not understand the meaning of the words, only then is this man ignorant of what a Cobb-Douglas equation is.
Freedom of speech has many positive things, one of which is the help it gives on decision-making. Thanks to freedom of speech it is possible to express personal ideas without fear or restraints; therefore, all the perspectives and options will be on the table, giving people more opportunities to choose from. Nevertheless, everything in life has a limit, and the limit of freedom of speech depends directly on the consideration of the rights of others. People is free of believing what they want, thinking what they want, and even saying what they want, everything as long as they do not intrude or violate anyone else's rights. Under certain circumstances freedom of speech should be limited, and this is more than just a political action, this acts represent the urge for tolerance and the need for respect.
Kim Harrison once said, “Knowledge is Power. Ignorance is Bliss. But curiosity—even if it had killed the cat—is king.” It is one’s natural curiosity that leads them to make inquiries and investigate certain issues until they are satisfied with their research and the answers they have found. Nevertheless, common idioms such as, “Ignorance is bliss” and “Some things are better left unsaid” will conquer this natural curiosity when faced with controversial issues that directly contradict one’s beliefs and upbringing. When presented with these uncomfortable choices, one must decide whether to acknowledge different perspectives despite possible consequences or remain uneducated in hopes of maintaining the status quo.
Knowing that not everybody will agree, my experiences taught me that there are cases where ignorance can be bliss. If something is not known, it doesn’t exist, therefore there is not a need for it and furthermore the sort of a paranoia that can be generated from the lack of it, is not there.