The Ignorance That Shuts Out Understanding

One of the greatest barriers to happiness is ignorance. And this we say despite the old saying that ignorance is bliss. If it is, it is a bliss founded on false foundations. Happiness should be, must be ⎯indeed, basically has to be ⎯founded on fact, on truth and intelligence. Consider in a few sentences the ignorance that pertains to the problem of getting along with people, the ignorance that shuts out understanding, that creates mistrust, intolerance, and contention:

“The earth and the fullness thereof has been placed at the disposal of Man,” wrote Hendrik Van Loon in his Geography. “This home of ours is a good home. It produces… benefits in… abundant measure…. But Nature has her own code of laws…. Nature will give unto us and she will give without stint, but in return she demands that we study her precepts and abide by her dictates. It will take time, it will take… slow and painful education to make us find the true road of salvation. But that road leads towards the consciousness that we are all of us fellow-passengers on one and the same planet. Once we have got hold of this absolute verity⎯once we have realized and grasped the fact that for better or for worse this is our common home… that it therefore behooves us to behave as we would if we found ourselves on board a train or a steamer bound for an unknown destination⎯we shall have taken the first but most important step towards the solution of that terrible problem which is at the root of all our difficulties. We are all of us fellow-passengers on the same planet… and we are all of us equally responsible for the happiness and well-being of the world in which we happen to live.”

With this awareness we would plead with all people to penetrate the shadows, to dispel ignorance and invite understanding, because what affects any of us affects all of us. And all of us earnestly need understanding⎯understanding of ourselves, understanding of other people and their problems. Ignorance is an enemy. It is not happiness.

“This home of ours is a good home” ⎯but more and more we need to cross the chasms that keep us from understanding, from communicating as man to man, for we are, all of us, fellow-passengers on the same planet. We need to learn to get along.