Knowledge is Power

[Aaron88]

After posting a quote in one of the other forums, "Ignorance is Bliss, Knowledge is Power", which I just thought was a kind of humourous remark, it got me thinking seriously whether or not it was true. There are a lot of intelligent people in these forums who would automatically assume knowledge is the way to go and what we should strive for because with it we can do amazing things.

With knowledge we can cure diseases, go into space, and build devices which make things much easier and make our lives much more comfortable. With knowledge we can understand our own existence and the things around us. With knowledge, man has transcended all other life on our planet Earth.

But suppose we were completely ignorant. We would not know that things could be "better", there wouldn't be the complications that we face, things would be simple. If you believed in fairies and magic and that the sun was a big cheese wheel being pushed across the sky by midgets, you would be a complete idiot but that world would be fun. More fun than a world where there is no Santa Claus or magic, and the sun is actually a burning ball of gas millions of miles away.

What I wonder is why our species is so curious to know everything, when the more you know the more miserable the world becomes(and you can't tell me that you weren't upset when you learned there was no such thing as Santa :crying ).

P.S. I didn't know if this was the right forum or not

[Zuwxiv]

Knowledge may be power, but power is power as well. There are easier ways to obtain it.

And as far as science vs ignorance, I would rather take ignorance. If I believed the sun was cheese, I might spend an hour trying to eat it. After a while my small attention span would completely forget what I was trying to do, and thus I would not be upset at failing.

However, today, I believe the sun is a giant ball of burning gas that someday will explode in a blast of staggering strength, ripping through the solar system and killing every tiny, miniscule living thing that just so happens to be close enough.

Isn't science... depressing?

[Italian]

knowledge is the corruption of innocense. I think if we all had the choice to be the people we are today or be the 6 year old version of ourselves we would all choose the 6 year old. Some people arent designed to handle knowledge so they go about their simple lives using things such as religion to protect them from reality. Some people are indowed with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. anyway, curiosity killed the cat.

[sponge_bob]

knowledge = power
power = evil
go to school and become evil

[Xiaodun]

Funny thing, I just read a Calvin and Hobbes comic that goes like this.

"Teacher? The constitution states that I have an unalienable right to pursue happiness." "If ignorance is happiness, than this class is an attempt to deliberately rob me of my happiness." "I will be assuming my patriotic duties and be out in the playgrounds."

I can envision a world where all people live happily in complete ignorance.

I can also envision me taking over the world because they'll never expect it (yah I know, I have no creativity).

If you read 1984, you will know that the ignorant populace are controlled like puppets by the Inner Party, people who control knowledge itself. Do the people in 1984 seem happy to you? Dying for a worthless war?

There have been historical situations where the ignorant are nearly made into slaves of the intellegent. Look at my country, we were all living in a medival society that had little crime and war, compleletly untainted by the outside because the shogunate purged western technology, religion and culture 200 years before, then the western countries came with their huge battle ships and demanded that we open up our borders and sign an unfair treaty. The shogunate was overthrown, the new government became tyrannical and desperate to gather more technology to counter the west, and the people suffered.

In short, knowledge is needed for self survival, its a lot like an army. If there were no armies there would be no wars, but there is always that country that makes a huge army and invades weaker countries.

[phalanx]

this is all dealing in abstarct terms "knowledge is power" sounds good and all, but a there isnt any chance of knowing whether or not it is the truth, you cant stop learning, even dumb people learn from mistakes, trial and error it is what life is all about, so you could say that "failiure is power"

[Amorphos]

I would say ignorance is not bliss, because if you don’t know anything, then you simply starve to death, if you don’t get killed first! Imagine; you are sat in a field in ignorant bliss, a rat comes up to you and begins eating your toes, it gets no threat so it continues! A slow and painful death ensues. For me, the more you know the better life is – you can beet disease and all other hardships by understanding them – so knowledge is bliss, ignorance is hell!

[Last_Crusader]

Knowledge is power only if it is seen to be of value. Perception of value is the source of all power. And now I fully expect to get flamed; just know that I'm willing to provide a basis for my statement before you write it off as an attempt by some idiot to look impressive.

[Aaron88]

Complete ignorance is impossible, because like a previous poster said it's instinctive to learn from trial and error. So of course someone would not let a rat sit there and knaw on them to death. Instincts have little to do with intelligence/ignorance.

"Ignorance is Bliss" doesn't nessecarily mean complete ignorance. There are some things that just make you unhappy to learn. Actually you can't honestly say that learning anything makes you happy. Maybe there are things that you learn that you are indifferent towards knowing, but nothing that makes you happy.

An example of being Ignorantly happy would be if you went to Mcdonalds every day for lunch. You buy a hamburger every day, it always tastes good and you finish it and go back to work. But after 3 weeks you learn that somebody spit in that burger every day. That's something you would rather not know if you really enjoyed that hamburger. Then that night you watch Super Size Me. That would be a miserable day because you learned something .

[stop-3]

phalanx has a bit of the idea of it. The phrase 'knowledge is power' is just nonsense - dreamt up no doubt by evil power-mongers to fool us poor individuals. Of course knowledge helps to groups, larger entitities whateaver to attain more power. For individuals, (unless you are evil) greater knowledge does not mean greater power - quite the opposite. It doesn't matter, for as phalanx hinted, success and power is finite, whilst failure and futility is infinite.
Which is the most powerful - the finite, or the infinite? Answer - neither. HAHA. Anything in-between? Nope. All ends in nothing. Conclusion - knowledge is nothing by itself (I should know). Allied with evil, it has fleeting power and will be nothing sooner or later.

[Amorphos]

Humans are the most powerful beings on earth, through knowledge, worms are not - through ignorance – which is bliss until the birds pluck ‘em out of the ground. We have learned through trial and error, & that is the acquisition of knowledge, instincts are kind of the genetic passing on of knowledge. If you make the statement “ignorance is bliss” then that should mean absolute ignorance, or else you should make a statement like ‘ignorance of that which you find distasteful is bliss’.
As for learning not making us happy; learning where the nearest pub [bar] is makes me happy lol, learning how to make love etc. etc. also makes us happy.
Aaron88: Your Macdonalds scenario was cool :lol & yes there are ways in which ‘relative’ ignorance is bliss!

[Perkele]

The more we know, the more we don't know. Funny but true.

[Mooshie]

I find that wisdom would be much more powerful than knowledge, as even the ignorant can gain knowledge as long as they have wisdom.

[Guderian]

Gotta agree with Mooshie. But i think a better saying would be:

Ignorance is routine, Knowledge is captivating.

[Bovril]

Originally posted by Perkele@May 25 2005, 06:54 PM
The more we know, the more we don't know. Funny but true.

I think the more we know, the more we know we don't know would be more accurate. Even then our knowlege would tend towards infinity (in the mathematical sense) and therefore we would reach a point where the more we knew, the less we knew we didn't know. Mmmm...

[Invoker]

I've thought often about ignorance versus knowledge. Would it be better to live ignorantly, in a poor state but ignorant to the fact that there is better? Or to live with knowledge, in the same state? I think objectively, that I would prefer knowledge, because at least with knowledge comes opportunity and advancement. Ignorance breeds nothing but more ignorance, but knowledge increases capability, and with knowledge, we can make the bad better.

[Otto von Lanstien]

I don't think Knowladge directly transfers into power, as much, say, as Charisma. It is simply another tool to help one acheive it. Personally I would always choose knowladge of what is depressing over ignorant "bliss". What now appears is sad and futile is in a sense beautiful and incredibly stimulating because of this. Sure you loose some of the wonder of everyday objects, but you gain huge amounts of wonder as you realize how strange and amazing our existance is, in this quite possibly infinate universe.

[Carousel]

Ignorance = Bliss
Knowledge = Power
Power doesnt always = happiness

Therefore, Knowledge doesn't always = happiness and as such:

Therefore Ignorance DOESN'T always = bliss.

Carousel :happy

[SonofSparta]

I'd like to thank each and every one of you for melting my brain in the process of reading this thread. Knowledge is impowerment not power...power as termed here is control over other's..knowledge does not give you that...but it gives you the means.