I was recently watching a video about the New Year celebrations around the world (yeah, the fireworks and all that…) when suddenly I got absorbed into an interesting reflection.
I was watching all the amazing, sophisticated fireworks and the progress humanity has achieved so far throughout the last few centuries… impressive! isn’t it? “It’s one of the best times to be alive” as someone once said.
Deeper into these thoughts, I understood clearly why it looked impressive. I was mainly contrasting our achievements and way of life with how humans used to live some 500, 1000, or 5000 years ago…
Let’s just take a look at what we can eat nowadays: If you ever have any spare time and look at the ingredients on your table, you’ll notice that you’re technically eating food originating from every other continent.
Humans throughout history have only been able to consume food that was harvested or produced locally in the surroundings; they’d go through life unaware of the majority of vegetables, fruits, beverages… that exist in other areas of the world, and this was often true regardless of whether you were poor or rich.
Compare this to storming nowadays into a large supermarket and the quantity and diversity of the ingredients that are accessible even to the middle/lower middle class…The contrast is absolutely striking!
Let’s look at our mobility: anybody can technically catch a flight and be anywhere in the world within 24 hours max (well, keeping aside paperwork, visas, and war zones…). The idea is, anywhere in the world is reachable, provided you meet certain requirements. Now compare it to a Roman emperor who had nothing of that; actually, during his reign he might not have been able to visit even 5% of the territories he had control over…
What the average person can afford mobility-wise nowadays is simply unreal for people from the past. The comparisons can go on endlessly to cover communication, health care, life expectancy, safety, social mobility…
The truth is, for the most part, a Roman emperor had very little of what the average person nowadays takes for granted.
Now let’s look at this the other way around: What if we could see into the future? What if humanity miraculously avoided the looming apocalypse and maintained a world of overall peace, progress, and technological advancements? What if we get to witness the life and possibilities people will have at hand by that time?
Think about the advanced health care, the ability to go to the other side of the planet in minutes instead of hours, the increased freedom, the lax state control… We will for sure feel upset, and what we currently possess will seem waaay less appealing to our eyes.
But here is the catch! We do NOT know; we’ll never know, and we’ll pass away without that remorse haunting us, just the same way a Roman emperor (let alone the poor and peasants) lived and died without feeling upset about how we currently live, for the simple reason that he did NOT know it exists!
This is the blessing of ignorance; it makes life more appealing, pleasant, and bearable. Sometimes it’s absolutely better for us to be ignorant!
Moral of the story: Not every knowledge is a blessing, and not every piece of information is worth looking for.
