Ignorence is not Bliss

Ignorance is not bliss
The more I think about the sentence “ignorance is bliss” I get madder and madder. Though many of my friends continue through their lives without acknowledging any issue that is present on our world stage at this time, I believe the only was to an educated and therefore a better society would be if everyone watched the news, if everyone had an opinion even if it is undecided. 9/11 happened because not enough people were aware of the terrorist activities in the modern world, though now we live in a constant state of fear for an attack; we also have power in the understanding of why things are happening.

I do not make claims that 9/11 would not have happened if the world new, if America knew more about countries outside their boundaries. I shall never forget when someone once said to me, “its not that surprising for an attack such as this, (9/11 and Bali bombings) to occur, it happens every month in an African nation or a Asian nation, they go unnoticed. It’s the fact that it happened in America, a land that promoted freedom yet goes to war, a land that helps so many other countries with their debts yet the cannot see outside their borders. It is the fact Americans can not comprehend why humans would want to live any where else and destroy their idealistic views.” Yet America has no problems, of course none at all. America can send troops thousands of kilometers away yet they cannot help people in their own country, i.e. Hurricane Katrina. It is threatening to think that such a “super power” exists, it is threatening to think that America can still be considered the country of land and liberty when our world and I emphasize the word OUR, is no longer these things.

The world has taken on a new form of fear, the world is now more afraid of different religions and cultures than it has been since the times of World Wars. It frightens me to think people still believe ignorance is bliss when the Germans in world war 2, I’m sure there are those that say “I didn’t know.” But how is it possible for thousands of people to disappear of the streets, shops to be looted, and soldiers to march everywhere and go unnoticed. Yes ignorance is bliss when there is the ethical situations for those who simply “did not know” Hitler was murdering so many people. What I remember when I think of the unjust these people continue to say when they come out with these lines, is this: the people that denied knowing what happened will have to continue their lives living a great secret and one day they will not be able to take the guilt anymore, well that’s what I hope happens.

I live in the third generation of World War 1, meaning it was not my parents who fought rather my grandparents. I do not understand the situations of the time nor will I try to, we live in a time where simply going off to fight a war does not make sense when your only reason is to represent and protect your country and motherland. I live in a time where the ignorant people do not understand what Kokoda, Gallipoli, the rats of Toobruk are, I live in a time that sees the Great Wars as something that will never happen again, and it wont because the next full scale war we fight will be chemical or nuclear and will wipe our world out. I live in a time where drunken rioters throw beer on the eternal flame I live in a time where the soldiers and those who fought and died are not respected. I live in a time where I can see what things went wrong in both wars. I can see how costly these wars are, I can see that these wars needed to happen, thou I do not condone them, I can see that these wars and the one today are examples of what it means to be Australian. Though I do not live in a time where students stand tall and proud to sing the national anthem.