GENERATION X WILL NOT BE SILENCED

Ignorance Is Bliss

But only in hindsight

Image: All3Media (Fair Use)

I just realized the expression “Ignorance is bliss” only applies in retrospect.

We don’t know we’re living in “bliss” at the time, because we’re “ignorant”, aren’t we?

Duh. Adam and Eve could’ve told me that.

For example, many years ago when I was married and lived in a nice house and spent so much money that I had memorized by credit card number (this is bad, btw), I was ignorant of how clothes were made.

I blissfully shopped, and shopped, and shopped.

Now, every purchase is burdened with the knowledge of how clothes are made, and by whom, and under what conditions.

Nothing is innocent anymore.

Nothing can happen or exist without comment.

Bliss was only knowing about what was going on in the wider world once a day when the local newspaper thudded onto the lawn, having been flung out a speeding car window by somebody driving from the passenger seat.

We were in bliss, but ignorant of it, when we all thought medical knowledge…