Is It Fun to Be Fooled?

It has been some two centuries since Thomas Gray wrote this sentence: “Where ignorance is bliss ’tis folly to be wise,” thus perpetuating a much-quoted phrase on a much-misunderstood assumption: that what we don’t know doesn’t hurt us. There comes to mind an old, old story of the giant who was complacently confident of his invincibility. But he was challenged by a contender who had a sword of exceeding sharpness, which sword with one mighty stroke cut through the giant’s body, so quickly and cleanly, so says the story, that the giant didn’t feel it. He was enjoying the bliss of ignorance, not knowing that he was cut in two, until his challenger said: “Shake yourself.” And when the giant shook himself, he fell apart. When some of us shake ourselves and face facts, we may not be nearly so “happy,” in a sense, as when we ignored facts⎯but the facts were there all the time. What we didn’t know did “hurt” us, but we didn’t know that it “hurt” us. And that is not intelligent happiness. It is a dangerous and unhappy kind of so-called happiness. Sometimes if we would shake ourselves sooner and face facts earlier, we might be better prepared for some of the sharp swords we have to meet in life. Yet we sometimes seem to like to be deceived. Many men make a good living out of other men’s willingness to be deceived. The professional magician is an honest sort of deceiver. We know beforehand that his purpose is to deceive us, and we are not pleased with his performance unless he does. But the dishonest deceiver is quite another thing. And perhaps the worst deceivers of all are those who deliberately deceive themselves. We may think it is fun to be fooled. We may thing that what we don’t know doesn’t hurt us⎯but if bacteria have been undermining us without at first producing symptoms, we have still been “hurt.” If termites have been boring at the beams without our knowing it, the house has still been “hurt.” If thieves have looted the safe without immediate discovery, the owner has still been “hurt.” There may be some pleasant and permissible deceptions, but safe and sound happiness sees through open eyes⎯and is not the false “bliss” that refuses to face facts.