Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry said, “If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t there more happy people in the world?”

Nice, pithy observation.

Shall we look at that?

We are, as humans, discontented. Discontent comes from comparisons.

Comparisons come in different forms. We may be discontented with our spouses because they don’t look like George Clooney or Salma Hayek; perhaps we are discontented with our jobs because our job is boring, monotonous, repetitive, poorly paid and we are unrecognised in it compared to one of our colleagues who is constantly getting ‘noticed’ and rewarded; our life may seem poor because we don’t have money to spend like rich people do or because we do not have the time to pursue our dreams like others seem to manage.

Then comparisons lead us down the road into unsavoury behaviour.

Irrespective of whether you are religious or an agnostic or atheist, you may decide that the other person is a moron because they don’t understand that your belief system is far superior to theirs—you are making a comparison based on your wants and needs.

On the social media this then devolves into a series of personal abuses that may be general in nature (yes, I understand that ‘personal’ and ‘general’ are antitheses but on the social media the lines are somewhat blurred) or aimed specifically at individuals.

There are occasions when the majority will take over the abuse against a minority which is only wrong when the minority present their case in a way that involves an abuse of liberty of the majority; in this instance I am thinking primarily of this ‘Westboro’ Baptist Church’ situation.

To be honest, I am not really sure what these people want or hope to achieve but their methods of getting an end result do appear rather negative—certainly they have inflamed the emotions of the masses.

Whatever they want it is because they have compared their reality with what they see as an external reality, they have reacted to this comparison in a way that has resulted in antagonism to other people.

The comparison has made them unhappy.

“Ignorance is bliss” only up to a point. At some stage there is a need for people to impose their views, their perceptions of the world on others. They will not see themselves as ignorant. They will see themselves as dedicated and knowledgeable individuals who may well team up with others of that ilk in order to change everyone else’s perceptions.

That effort makes them unhappy and it will, for a short period of time, make other people’s existence unhappy.

Only a short period of time because history has shown that these people come and, equally rapidly, go. The passing leaves a small ripple that, in time, becomes smooth and disappears.

Then someone else will appear and create another ripple, they will stir things up to muddy the water so that other people will join in. Perhaps conspiracy theorists will also arise and hurl pseudo-evidence in the wrong direction to muddy the waters even further in the public perception.

“Ignorance is bliss” is the equivalent of burying your head in the sand.

Sometimes it works.

Often it does not.