For years I agreed with this idiom and thought I knew why it made sense.
Ignorant people spend less time worrying and more time enjoying life, or do they really?
A change of heart
A few years back I saw a small lecture (I can’t even recall where) of a guy who tried to explain how wrong he thought this idiom is and why.
Although I am known as a fierce debater, too aggressive for most people (to the level where many people have stopped debating with me because of that), I try to stay open minded about most things in life so I was naturally intrigued and found myself agreeing with this speaker and adopting his view eventually.
The claims
In summation, this is what he had to say:
- You are the only person responsible for making decisions for you.
- If you let other people decide for you, you neglect yourself.
- If you make uneducated decisions, they will most likely hurt you down the road.
- If you educate yourself, the decisions will be more likely to have a positive effect on your life.
Since I have always believed in researching decisions I make in life, it made a lot of sense to me and I found myself observing my life and other peoples’ lives and comparing them to try and understand if this observation really results in the same conclusions.
‘The hand of god’
What I noticed surprised me very much, it was beyond what I thought.
I found out that most people actually never really thought of making educated decisions and they are convinced that their lives are in someone else’s hands and they could not see how all the decisions they did not make, got them where they are now although they believed it was some ‘mysterious guiding hand’ that brought them there.
Here is what I suggest to you, you can make that observation on your own, you don’t need me for it. Try to think of a decision that you felt like you had to make (for one reason or another) and that changed your life. Judging it today, looking back at that point of life, can you see how some research and some careful planning would have taken you on a whole new path?
Peer pressure
People have always lived in herds, be it the ancient tribes of men or the extended family of the more modern ages, we have always lived and functioned in groups.
It is natural to assume that people would be more likely to adopt the common belief of the tribe than to try and reach an educated decision on their own.
There are many alarming examples of this simple fact throughout history like the holocust and the mass vaccination that is going on around us these days.
We must always remember that what suits many may not suit us. That it is better to stop and think, do some research, raise some questions before joining a revolution that may or may not be good for you.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who is to blame for what, it only matters that you make the right decision for you and learn to live with the consequences of that decision.
I can promise you this, try and implement this motto, educate yourselves, and you will see improvements in your lives you never thought possible.
Aviram
