I've been wondering lately about how `good' or `helpful' conventional wisdom and thinking is for me, and for the human race as a whole. There are some things that seem good or helpful at the surface, like "ignorance is bliss". However, when we look a little closer, being ignorant of the facts (e.g. porn is addictive, cigarettes cause lung cancer, etc.) actually harms us, even though we may feel joy/pleasure from the immediate effects of using those substances. Does anyone else have any nuggets of "conventional wisdom" they find more harmful than helpful? If so, why?
I don't think "conventional wisdom" is wisdom at all sometimes, like you stated. At other times, one could totally keep arguing for pages and pages as to why ignorance is or isn't bliss. But I agree, ignorance ultimately is pure suffering, lol.
I think whoever said "ignorance is bliss" was actually being satirical. At least I bloody hope so. Cos if this is really supposed to be taken as literal wisdom then people might just be more stupid that I thought...
I always viewed it as meaning it is easier to ignore or perhaps downright deny the truth (easier for certain types of people ermmmm let these links explain actually). Living with eyes wide shut so to speak. The Origin of the Saying Ignorance Is Bliss - Grammar Monster Is ignorance bliss? - Quora I think wisdom is something some people will never understand let alone come close to acquiring for themselves. I think the world could certainly use more truly wise people. But some of these "conventional wisdom" sayings are totally nonsensical LOL.
Dammit man. Trying to find a good video to share. Lol. Ok I'll just share this. Fuckin idiot term if you ask me no offense, it's just the videos on this subject are nonsensical lol.
I've seen some people take this approach in life, particularly when it comes to basic math facts. I've heard more than one person say "I don't want to know why it works, I just want to know how to use it!" More accurately, people ask "is there a shortcut?" after you show them a really simple way of doing something. All in all some good posts. 虎穴に入らずんば虎子を得ず, I really like how you have the "Minimalists" in your signature. Definitely a great movement, one I've tried apply to pair down the extra garbage I own that I don't need.
Always when I've thought about that quote I thought about the idea of indulging into sweet lies rather than opening one's eyes to harsh truth. Not so much about not wanting to learn something because it's impractical and unnecessary. for example don't care to learn how iPhone works; I don't want to study electrical engineering, I just wanna use it. So in that case I don't think we could say ignorance is bliss, it's just impractical and useless for what I am trying to accomplish. As opposed to, this lets take a smoking as another example, or eating, a bad diet maybe. You could say ignorance is bliss when somebody refuses to accept the reality that what they consume is bad for them just so they could indulge in these pleasures with an excuse. Or maybe when a new study comes out that certain food causes cancer the person does not know about it. So I don't feel these are the same thing. And I would not use the quote the way you do. But that's just my interpretation. And I think there is some truth to the quote by the way. The very statement "ignorance is bliss" implies it's opposite - that knowledge can be uncomfortable. Sometimes it is easier not to know something. So in a way it is actually a wise quote. Even if it is not a recommendation but satirical.
Eighteenth century English poet Thomas Gray is well known for his phrase, "where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." The phrase, from Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, is possibly one of the most misconstrued phrases in English literature (including @No_More_Lies). Thomas Gray is not promoting ignorance, but is reflecting with nostalgia on a time when he was allowed to be ignorant, his youth.
Conventional wisdom is the body of ideas or explanations generally accepted as true by the public and/or by experts in a field... Conventional wisdom is not necessarily true. It is additionally often seen as an obstacle to the acceptance of newly acquired information, to introducing new theories and explanations, and therefore operates as an obstacle that must be overcome by legitimate revisionism. This is to say, that despite new information to the contrary, conventional wisdom has a property analogous to inertia that opposes the introduction of contrary belief, sometimes to the point of absurd denial of the new information set by persons strongly holding an outdated (conventional) view. This inertia is due to conventional wisdom being made of ideas that are convenient, appealing and deeply assumed by the public, which hangs on to them even as they grow outdated. This inertia can last even after the paradigm has shifted between competing conventional idea sets. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conventional_wisdom
That is more than fair. I haven't really seen it this way myself until more recently. This kind of sheds light onto a major problem with quotations: it is usually taken out of context with what the author originally meant. Fair enough regarding the iPhone example. My issue regarding a lack of knowledge on basic math facts has more to do with people refusing to learn things that experts in their field think is necessary for them to take in a course they are in (think remedial math for a high school diploma, or applied math for a skilled trade). If you can't tell, I teach. And its frustrating seeing people wanting to do carpentry (which uses imperial to beat hell) that don't want to learn about working with fractions.
Thanks for posting this. Neat to see a sort of "origin" of the phrase. Definitely can understand how I was misconstruing it. But this relates back to seeing a quotation somewhere without a source reference, and how taking a quote out of context leads to this kind of thing. I'm particularly interested in seeing what other nuggets of conventional wisdom other people have found that are garbage, or stem from a quote taken out of context. And, as my post has done, I am interested in this discussion.
