Is Ignorance Bliss?
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the piece and safety of a new dark age." - H.P. Lovecraft So, some day we'll discover something that will drive us as a culture insane, or we'll reject science for a comforting ignorance. Does this mean we should drop everything and accept the world we live in, or should we continue to reach out and discover new frightening things until we reach the breaking point? And is there a middle path?
Sometimes. I definitely feel like I'd be much happier if I didn't watch the news.