Prompt One: The Unquestioned Life

The standard cliché response to this question is that of course it is wrong not to question anything, then how can you be truly happy or know yourself or something similar to that. I think that when someone reads this question, this becomes an automatic response because the term "ignorance" is used. No one wants to be ignorant, it has a negative connotation, and as students, we have been taught that it is always better to have more knowledge. Mark Twain talked about only following your feelings for what the majority would consider to be right, and not forming your own independant opinions. And for the most part, it is true that this is the wrong course. Think where the world would be today if no one had ever questioned the status quo and gone along with the majority. The term, "revolution" as we know it would cease to exist, along with the notion of democracy and our own country. So, yes questioning public opinion is a good thing, we should not go through life as lemmings, being lead off a cliff because everyone else is. However, I don't buy the notion that we need to truly "know ourselves" in order to life fully. There are several examples where you really do not want to know the truth. Do you really want to know what goes into a hot dog? Or how about if your significant other was unfaithful many years ago but it was only once and now he or she loves you dearly? What about if you had a genetic disorder causing you to become a paranoid schizophrenic when you reached a certain age? Would you really want to know if that was going to happen or live the remainder of your sane years as a happy person. Now, of course, some people are going to disagree and say they would like to know these things (these are most likely also the same people who have the automatic reaction to the question that I stated at the beginining of this post). They want to know exactly what they are eating, they want to know any past indiscretion their lover may have had, they want to know exactly what is going to happen to them. Socrates said that we should truly examine everything, but I would argue that these people would eventually become cynics and not take joy out of anything because they have to know the whole truth about everything. It is a natural tendency of people to want to have the illusion of happiness, even if deep down they know it is a deception. What, exactly, is so wrong with not looking outside your bubble of comfort? In Socrates's argument, he claimed that people who did not subject their life to constant examination would be blind to what is truly important in life, but isn't what is truly important subject to each individual? I disagree with the moral obligation argument or the argument that we have some sort of purpose or role to fullfil in life. If you can manage to life a reasonably comfortable life and die a happy person then that is all that you can ask. There is no way to live "correctly," simply live however you need to to reach your own goals. Questioning is a good thing, we should never simply take things at face value because we feel the public opinion says it is right, however we should also recognize that in certain instances, ignorance is bliss, and spending your time looking for every ugly little truth can leave you just as empty inside as the lemmings who are lead off the cliff.