How blissful is ignorance?

Written by Cherelle Jackson

Ignorance is a very strong word, when one thinks of this word, it’s easy to misinterpret it as lacking intelligence, but the real meaning is lacking proper knowledge, it is essentially not a bad thing.
‘Ignoring’ however, well it’s a whole different concept altogether, it is when proper knowledge is deliberately disregarded for the benefit of the ‘ignorer.’
To understand that, is to truly appreciate the saying: “Ignorance is bliss” because if you will yourself enough to believe that a problem does not exist, then you really don’t have to worry about it, therefore you could be much happier.
That furthermore explains the saying that: “what you don’t know won’t necessarily hurt you.”
Now that this writer has successfully bored you enough with an attempt at deciphering these clichés here is the real point of the ramble.
About five years ago, some New Zealand researchers came up with some tremendous statistics which suggested that Samoan women were not really affected by post natal depression.
Simply put, Samoan women did not suffer from emotional issues after the birth of a baby.
In the words of one hilarious English fellow, “it’s all bollocks.” This is simply not true.
It’s not that the condition did not exist, it’s that the women who were interviewed did not know what post natal depression was.
The same goes for Sexually Transmitted Diseases and teen aged pregnancies in Samoa.
As long as some parents refuse to accept that their sons and daughters may be engaging in sexual activity, their children are refused access to contraceptive methods.
So as long as they ignore the situation, it might just go away.
News flash, it won’t.
So when the representative of WHO expressed his sheer discontent at the way in which Samoa is approaching the typhoid issue, well, one can’t help but empathize with his position.
But the Ministry of Health has ensured Newsline that they are not ignoring the problem but rather approaching if from the basics.
One (as in ‘me’) can’t help but note that the problem has persisted for months, if not years, without much change in the consistency of cases.
So it is then fair to say that although admittedly there are actions to curb it, the problem is possibly being ignored on a larger scale.
Come on, when the World Health Organization representative is worried, shouldn’t we?
It’s like ignoring depression in the midst of recession, but let’s not get into that.
The fact is, there is a problem and something needs to be done about it, because leaving the situation as is, as history has only proven, will not make the problem go away.
Perhaps the strategy taken here is less then admirable.
The strategy being, if the people don’t know then the people will not complain, and well, the problem will not be obvious.
Noam Chomsky, a 21st century Philosopher argued in his book Media Control that if people were deliberately kept in the dark, they would be easier to control, which naturally meant that those in the know inadvertently impose ‘ignorance’ on those they were meant to inform.
This theory is too easy to implement in Samoa especially when it comes to issues that require a bit more than the village hut gossip or even the sweet nothings of evening rendezvous.
To influence Samoans, far more sophisticated avenues of influence are necessary, through mass media campaign, grassroots consultation, high level discussions and ultimately the mobilization of all relevant stakeholders to actually make an impact, especially the local and the church communities.
So in the end its not the concept itself that harms but those who impose it.
And yes Socrates was right: “There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”