Of ignorance and bliss

I was recently motivated by the Wise Malini to examine a phrase we often hear, and we often hear abused. Ignorance is bliss, wrote Thomas Gray in his so attractively titled poem "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College." But is it? Let me first disclaim the ability for this phrase to apply in our modern world. In today's society, at least our world (that applies to everyone who is reading this), we cannot remain fully ignorant, in a state like that which a newborn experiences. And without full ignorance, logically, "ignorance is bliss" is not true because while someone may be ignorant of one item, they are not ignorant of everything. Someone tell me how you can have a partial bliss...how you can be blissful despite other knowledge which, going along with Gray's proposal, is detrimental.

Newborn bliss

Is being a baby, with complete and total ignorance (I could still argue that it's not, but I won't) a state of happiness? Believe it or not, being ignorant of all emotions is encompassed by "complete and total ignorance." So, I ask you now, how can an ignorant be in bliss--supreme happiness--if they don't know what happiness is? They have no urge to know what happiness is. They have no urge to know was sadness is. This state of total ignorance is not bliss. It is simply a state of being, a state of contentment. 

Nothing seems good, nothing seems bad.  

When you search "bliss" this is what you get.
http://www.desktopas.com/files/2012/11/18/cow-bliss-1024x768.jpg

Some say in retrospect that they wish they were in the blissful time of infancy again. Perhaps it's blissful from an outside, superficial, perspective, but if one were to return to such bliss, they wouldn't even know it. They wouldn't feel happy or sad. They would simply be.

How good would it be to have people talk to you and be ignorant of what they are saying? Not good.

A broader view of ignorance

Ignorance as bliss has often been applied to various situations ranging from death to injury to the economy. Maybe it's bliss. But is it, knowing that we will know in the end? It's an extremely personal question, and all justification may come tumbling down, because everyone is right: ignorance can be bliss, or it can never be bliss. What do you think? But it all comes down to what ignorance is. With the exception of total ignorance, which I discussed above, small batches of ignorance can have no benefit! With the gamble of knowledge, you have a chance of benefit and a chance of detriment. If we live our lives being neutral, nothing is achieved. We have to take chances to prevent this, the chances of knowledge. Ignorance is lack of knowledge. Lack of knowledge, in today's society, is incompetence. It is socially unacceptable to be ignorant. This is especially true in today's world of technology, where if you don't know something, you tend to find it out another way or purposely find it with the ease of the internet.

There must be a reason why ignorance has a negative connotation.

http://www.cheatdiary.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Knowledge-1.jpg