Is the truth really worth knowing? If an individual had the choice between living an extraordinary life, full of joy and happiness or a tragic world full of troubles, pain, and suffering. What would he choose? It seems only obvious that we all like peace and being surrounded by joy. When the truth hurts we do well to stay away from it. However, is human nature to want to seek the truth once we become aware that the life we’re living might be full of deceit.
Oedipus the King was a man in power who had control of his own town and was well looked at and respected. The reality he knew was joyful enough for him. He started as every Philosopher does, questioning and questioning. We can see from the reading that Oedipus had a much better life before he was exposed to the truth. The truth brought his world to hell. He hated himself, and his people looked at him differently. He could no longer be admirable but be looked at with eyes of pity. Oedipus in line (1330) says " In my wretched life why should I have eyes when nothing I could see should bring me joy?" Knowing the truth will no longer bring him any joy and he blinded himself to not see because "the man who sees with his eyes is blind" (Plato) in John Chafee's Book, A Philosophers Way. By not having sight he must believe that he can gain knowledge. It seems however, almost always the truth is hurtful and can destroy us. When one has a girlfriend or boyfriend we like to think of them as being honest, caring, and loving. When we are emotionally attach to our partners and they bring happiness into our lives, it would kill us to find out they would hurt us. If one is in love, would it better to find out our partner has cheated on us or stay ignorant to that truth and stay with our partner refusing to know if he/she has done you wrong. One of those choices has a happy ending, the other does not. One can happily stay with their boyfriend/girlfriend ignoring they have played you or one can seek to know the truth but be deeply hurt and causing a break up and a broken heart. Indeed, we can see that ignorance is bliss.
In The Matrix Neo comes out of the cave into the real world. To him it was shocking and hurtful being exposed to this new reality. It took getting used to, but he gain knowledge he did not have inside his cave. He asks Morpheus in the movie if he would be able to go back, as in going back into the world he knew(the cave). Morpheus tells him he cannot. This could be because when one gains knowledge of "the real world" we can no longer accept the cave. As I read in Kevin Reilly's Worlds of History Book "if you have learned about the peasant, you will not be able to be one". Once one has seen the truth we can longer live the lie. However, for there was an exception. Cypher loves it how ignorance is bliss and has an arrangement with agent Smith to make him go back into "the cave". Cypher liked the cave, he enjoyed it, it made him happy. For him, it was fascinating that all the knowledge he learn outside the cave will be erase, so he can be ignorant again inside the cave and have a happy life The real world was terrible and not worth living for him. The truth he could not bare, he couldn't take it, he wanted to live a lie. There are many individuals who would agree with Cypher and their lives would have been different today if they wouldn't have found out certain truths.A large amount of population I would safely say would praise the idea that "ignorance is bliss"
Both Oedipus the King and The Matrix show the readers that finding out the truth can ruin us. One minute we're living an amazing life and the other we find out the truth and our world becomes a living hell. This brings the question once more if knowing the truth is really worth knowing and necessary? I personally would say yes, ugly truths can hurt but we can embrace it. As the marines say "improvise, adapt, overcome". It will take getting use to, but one can construct a new world and leave behind the past. For Oedipus, he can't retract the decisions he made, but he could have affected the decisions he was going to make from there on. In The Matrix Cypher could have accepted that though living in the cave is more pleasant and comfortable, he could have fought and try to establish joy and pleasure in the real world. Is not going to be easy, but is by all means possible. Only the cowards and the weak minded would decide to go back into the cave and live a life of deceit. I cannot, and definitely will say that ignorance is not bliss, as a Philosopher I have to reach out to the absolute truth. As Plato once said "for only truth does never change, and thus never looses it's value.
In The Matrix Neo comes out of the cave into the real world. To him it was shocking and hurtful being exposed to this new reality. It took getting used to, but he gain knowledge he did not have inside his cave. He asks Morpheus in the movie if he would be able to go back, as in going back into the world he knew(the cave). Morpheus tells him he cannot. This could be because when one gains knowledge of "the real world" we can no longer accept the cave. As I read in Kevin Reilly's Worlds of History Book "if you have learned about the peasant, you will not be able to be one". Once one has seen the truth we can longer live the lie. However, for there was an exception. Cypher loves it how ignorance is bliss and has an arrangement with agent Smith to make him go back into "the cave". Cypher liked the cave, he enjoyed it, it made him happy. For him, it was fascinating that all the knowledge he learn outside the cave will be erase, so he can be ignorant again inside the cave and have a happy life The real world was terrible and not worth living for him. The truth he could not bare, he couldn't take it, he wanted to live a lie. There are many individuals who would agree with Cypher and their lives would have been different today if they wouldn't have found out certain truths.A large amount of population I would safely say would praise the idea that "ignorance is bliss"
Both Oedipus the King and The Matrix show the readers that finding out the truth can ruin us. One minute we're living an amazing life and the other we find out the truth and our world becomes a living hell. This brings the question once more if knowing the truth is really worth knowing and necessary? I personally would say yes, ugly truths can hurt but we can embrace it. As the marines say "improvise, adapt, overcome". It will take getting use to, but one can construct a new world and leave behind the past. For Oedipus, he can't retract the decisions he made, but he could have affected the decisions he was going to make from there on. In The Matrix Cypher could have accepted that though living in the cave is more pleasant and comfortable, he could have fought and try to establish joy and pleasure in the real world. Is not going to be easy, but is by all means possible. Only the cowards and the weak minded would decide to go back into the cave and live a life of deceit. I cannot, and definitely will say that ignorance is not bliss, as a Philosopher I have to reach out to the absolute truth. As Plato once said "for only truth does never change, and thus never looses it's value.
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