Education: Not Just For the Classroom

Ignorance is bliss. Never has such a blatant lie been uttered and constantly repeated as part of common American phraseology in history. This belief that somehow being completely in the dark makes your life better is absolute nonsense. Being in the dark does not remotely sound like a good thing in any context, as clearly evidenced by any given horror movie. Why then is this credence so commonly held in our modern mindsets? The answer is simple, but no one wants to say it because, basically, the truth hurts sometimes. It is easy; it is so much easier to be clueless, to rely on others while you wallow in your own stupidity. Why should I educate myself when I can let other people do all my thinking for me? They can tell me what to believe and I can regurgitate it, with all the effort of a sloth. No problem, right? Right?

Wrong. The problem with this mentality is that those people that come to own you as they define your beliefs, could be wrong. They could be lying to you, or using you, or simply have the facts wrong, but you would never know. “If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything”. The most important aspect of an individual is his ability to think for himself. Through your beliefs and your knowledge you can cause change. Knowledge is like that spark that begins a fire within your life.

In order to gain knowledge, you have to search the world around you. You have to research, evaluate, and think things through. The election this year is the perfect opportunity to try out this education process. Standing before you are two candidates with two dramatically different views on what direction this country needs to take. And then you have a million different articles, with a thousand different opinions, and talking heads that fill your screen nightly with sound bites. And most importantly you have one very important decision to make on November 6^th, standing at a voting booth. You have to educate yourself, on who these candidates are, tune out all the noise, and gain an understanding for what they will do, with your vote. I know where I stand, but that is irrelevant to you. Come next year if the candidate that you voted for out of ignorance starts doing things that hurt you or this nation that you love, it will not be very blissful.