"Real eyes realize real lies." -Tupac
Ignorantia juris non excusat (Ignorance is no excuse). Ignorance is bliss. A wise man, Earnest Hemingway quotes, “Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”
Ignorance is no excuse. Being ignorant to something is never and should never be an excuse.
This is one of the common law principles adapted into our legal system, where if one doesn't know that their action is against the law, it does not constitute an acceptable reason to commit the deed. One has the resources to find out about the law, therefore ignorance is no excuse.
This is applicable to any and everything, even outside of the law. An obvious one would be if you smoked marijuana in Oregon. It's illegal there, but it's legal in Washington, one cannot simply say, "I did not know it was illegal here." Outside of legality, a prime example school related would be claiming one did not know a paper was due, or that there was a test. There are course websites and course syllabi, resources answering the questions that could be asked, so ignorance is not a excuse because one could find the answer if they researched it. I don't know who coined the phrase, "ignorance is bliss." Must have been an ignorant person. I honestly think it was an How can being oblivious to the things around them be considered a bliss? If anything I think it amplifies the stupidity in this world. Not knowing about racism, discrimination, the world issues, the injustices from history… how is any of that bliss? You could be committing unjust actions towards a certain group of people and not know it, and you are perfectly fine with that? Being racist and prejudicial towards people and when someone calls you out on it you claim that you didn't know your words or actions were offensive? That's no excuse.
I cannot stand people who degrade another person's culture, religion, sexual orientation, sex, or even nationality and think brush it off as if they did nothing wrong because they are oblivious to the issues at hand. They are oblivious to history, and ignorant to the significant symbolism embodied within these categories. Using ignorance as a defense, as an excuse, as a justifiable reason to discriminate and put someone down… I cannot stand the ignorance in this world.
To me, intelligent people are almost never happy, the reason being, they know so much more about what is going on in the world, the good and especially the bad. They are more aware of the bullshit that goes on in the world. I'm not saying all intelligent people are unhappy, or depressed, but a lot of intelligent people are the ones who are going out there and making a change and or contributing to a cause to make a change because they know of the shitty things going on in this world. The shitty things going on in the world need attention and more often than not, these shitty things are never a mood lifter. How can anyone fully love and live life knowing such shitty things are going on? This is why I praise activists and people out there making a change, instead of people sitting on their asses doing nothing to change the ignorance out there.
There are people who are brought up believing in only beautiful things, and they are blind the the horrific parts of the world, they in my mind are delusional. Nothing is perfect, no system is perfect, and there are definitely still shitty things going on in the world. What? Just because Hitler and the Nazi regime is gone, just because the Japanese aren't interned anymore, just because the Chinese aren't excluded anymore, just because we aren't allowed to use nuclear weapons to bomb another country anymore, just because a lot of the dictatorships are gone does not mean the world is peachy. I cannot stand the people who have so much love for a world that is still filled with so much flaw. I cannot stand those who love and live life so much that they are oblivious to the REAL issues in the world.
If life is as beautiful as you claim it to be, look up and tell me about the riots in Egypt, the murders, homicides, and genocides in the Middle East, look up human trafficking numbers, look up how many countries do not have enough to provide simple HiV/AIDS treatment to those in need, look up the poverty levels in the United States, look up the poverty levels in other countries, look at our mass incarceration rates and tell me how much of those are minorities, tell me about racial profiling, the implicit racism that goes on, the structural racism in laws that law-makers are passing because it is not explicitly racist and AFTER YOU'VE LOOKED UP all the bullshit that STILL GOES ON IN THIS WORLD, THEN, I WANT YOU TO LOOK ME IN THE EYES AND TELL ME THIS WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL.
I want you to look me in the eyes after looking all this up, looking at the statistics and pictures of all those starving, dying, the females that are treated like objects and less than human, I want you to DIVE INTO all of that, be indulged in it. After you become educated, I want you to tell me how beautiful this world is. I want you to tell me that you want to continue living on this Earth and not do anything to make a change to literally make this world a better place. It's impossible right? if you learn about all this bullshit that still goes on, you wouldn't want to just sit and ignore it. You can't just sit and ignore it.
You cannot love and live life the same way knowing so much unjust shit goes on in this world. So those who believe the world is beautiful, who believes life is beautiful, stop being ignorant and look at the real issue at hand.
Update: Now that I've researched where the 'ignorance is bliss' comes from I am proud to say the full quote is "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise," from Thomas Grey's poem. This is basically critiquing ignorance, saying that little knowledge is a dangerous thing, in which supports my argument above saying without knowledge on certain issues you could be intentionally offending someone adding further to your ignorance because you don't know what you're doing is wrong. If that is the case one will never be able to correct one's mistakes. In response to my earlier commentary on an ignorant person creating this quote, it's not the person who coined the quote that is ignorant because he feels that lack of knowledge is in fact lethal. But ignorance is upon those who interpret the quote for just the "ignorance is bliss" part and embrace just that phrase itself and use it as a excuse to be ignorant and oblivious to the world. Those are the type of people I deem ignorant, the ones who took the quote out of context leading me to believe that the quote in itself meant ignorance should be accepted. Ignorance in some religions can be considered a sin, which I think it hilariously contradictory because a lot of the religious people who believe ignorance is a sin also believe that gay marriage is a sin. Stop being closed-minded. Actually this is a post for another time, the controversial issue of legalizing gay marriage.
