Where Ignorance Is Bliss, It Is Folly to Be Wise
This remark is the outcome of the mood of disgust that sometimes overtakes the wise men when they find themselves troubled by the deeper questioning about this life and the miseries of existence, and find the ignorant multitude leading a blissful life. Such remarks are also provoked by the folly of the ignorant which becomes a source of irritation and trouble to the wise. History supplies abundant examples of the persecution of the wise by the ignorant. The ignorant compelled Socrates to drink hemlock crucified Jesus Christ and burnt alive great scientists like Bruno. These wise men suffered owing to the ignorance of the people to whom they wanted to give sweetness and light. The beautiful story, ‘The Country of the Blind by HG Wells illustrates the truth of this maxim. Once a man from our world stayed in the country of the Blind. After some struggle with the blind people, he was allowed to live among them. Soon after he fell in love with one of the blind girls and wanted to marry her. But he was not a normal natural citizen of the country because he had eyes and could see. The elders of the Country of the Blind discovered that his abnormality proceeded from his ‘eves’ and decreed that he must get them removed and become a natural citizen of the country if he wanted to marry the blind girl. This test put the poor fellow between the devil and the deep sea. He passed many agonized nights as the day of operation drew near. At last, he decided in favour of retaining his eyes and forgoing his love and fled the country of the blind. People with eve, i.e. the wise people are treated as abnormal citizens in the Country of the Blind i.e. by ignorant people. Their knowledge becomes a source of trouble and they have to suffer persecution and death like Socrates, Christ, and Bruno. But the decision of ‘the man with eyes’ to leave the country of the blind and preserve his eyes is indomitable proof of man’s undying thirst for knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom is preferable to ignorance even though it entails suffering. It is better to be wise and to suffer a blissful ignorant animal-like existence.
