Blog Entry 11

Does Knowledge Make You Happier?

     “As for me, all I know is that I know nothing” said Socrates meaning that despite of the vast knowledge we can get in our life, we will continue being ignorant in compare with the immensity of the universe. Therefore, I think that we would never get enough knowledge, but the more we get the happier we will become. On the other hand, there are some downs since everything is not perfect as we saw in Truman Show and in The Matrix. We can see these two sides of knowledge in our education in college and how it has influenced us as citizens and human being.

     “Te Allegory of the Cave”  in The Republic by Plato, Socrates sets up an scenario of a cave representing ignorance and to come out represents to come out to reality, to the enlightening while in The Matrix, to live in, it also represents ignorance and to come out represents knowledge but knowledge about the truth. In our daily life to get out of the cave is to get educated, or enlightened as Socrates said, so we can enjoy the beauty of the real world. This beauty is not only about nature if not the satisfactions that education brings which include a good job, competitive wages, and some luxuries that having a carrier can afford it. However, reality not always means a positive enhancement like in The Matrix, when Neo wakes up in the reality where the food is awful and barely has some clothes to wear.  In our reality, it is more than just to take a red pill because if we cannot afford to pay for school nobody is going to offer education for free, even though we are ready or willing to be enlightened. Moreover, some people in our community, who already has a degree, cannot qualify for a job or exercise the benefits of high education due to immigration status, and there is when people start to think that “ignorance is bliss” like Cypher, the traitor in The Matrix, who becomes frustrated about knowing the truth of the real world.

     “I imagine, right now, you must be feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole?” Morpheus said to Neo because he seemed confused and scared. The more Neo knew, the more he get impress. Similarly, when knowledge make people to understand things that couldn’t understand before but they are not capable of change them. For instance, knowledge makes people understand how the economy works and that the economists see people as number but not as humans that in determined situation they don’t care who die or lived. It also makes people understand that there are social problems such as poverty and famine. Because of knowledge, people get awareness about those situations and try to fix them which make them happy. However, we haven’t been capable to fix them which make us confused and scared humans beings.

     Indeed, knowledge makes us happier, but it doesn’t mean that reality it’s perfect because to know the truth, it also brings dissolutions that we aren’t capable to solve, so “all that I know is that I know nothing.”