Bad Knowledge?

[NeverMore]

Can gaining knowledge ever be considered a bad thing? Are there times when you can be morally justified keeping people from the truth? If so, who should decide which truths should be suppressed?

 

[Unacceptance]

Learning is not a crime. Truth is not a fault. Reality is not to be avoided. If honesty causes pain then the fact is what causes the pain, not the understanding of it. Why lie or turn a blind eye to an evil that should be faced and abolished or destroyed?

 

[Scott]

If honesty causes pain then the fact is what causes the pain, not the understanding of it. Why lie or turn a blind eye to an evil that should be faced and abolished or destroyed?

Not everything bad or painful has to be faced. Why subject someone to having to face something that could be very painful if it isn't needed? In some cases pehaps it is needed, in others, clearly not. Things aren't always black and white, judgement and experience are called for.

Sadly a lot of the time the words 'experience is the thing you get just after you needed it' applies.

 

[Unacceptance]

If honesty causes pain then the fact is what causes the pain, not the understanding of it. Why lie or turn a blind eye to an evil that should be faced and abolished or destroyed?

Not everything bad or painful has to be faced. Why subject someone to having to face something that could be very painful if it isn't needed? In some cases pehaps it is needed, in others, clearly not. Things aren't always black and white, judgement and experience are called for.

I don't think lying to yourself is a very healthy alternative to not facing something that hurts. You have to deal with life so you can come to terms with it. Even if it sucks. Just like you have to cut a projectile out of yourself when shot otherwise it will poison you or get infected and kill you even if the additional goring hurts.

C'est la vie.

 

[Qui]

knowing a truth that is bad is not as bad as the fact that the truth itself is bad.
it's still bad, but it's only bad because of the inherent nature of bad things. bad things are bad, so if in truth something is bad it can be bad to gain knowledge of it. ultimately it is good to know the truth, but learning the truth can be ugly and in general not very good.
but what I just said didn't even make sense to me, and I said it. so feel free to ridicule my oppinions as being stupid or nonsensical or uninteligible or whatever else you might want to say about it.

 

[An archist]

I don't think lying to yourself is a very healthy alternative to not facing something that hurts. You have to deal with life so you can come to terms with it. Even if it sucks. Just like you have to cut a projectile out of yourself when shot otherwise it will poison you or get infected and kill you even if the additional goring hurts.

C'est la vie.

You wouldn't be lying to yourself, if you don't know the "unpleasant truth" (I would have called it "inconvienient truth, but I don't wana get sued! ). Case in point: hot dogs. Let's say that you enjoy hot dogs. Now, you probably assume that they're made out of something nasty but knowing that for certain would sorta ruin hot dogs for you--not enough to dissuade you from eating them in the future, but just the unpleasant facts of what goes into them will cross your mind everytime you take a bite. In this case my claim is that it's better to just not investigate the contents of the hot dog as it will do only harm.

This isn't a totally bogus example. I know a lot of my favorite foods are tainted in some way or another, yet I still eat them on a regular basis. I'm thinking of chicken right now. (*WARNING* those of you who like eating chicken should stop reading right now, lest you end up like the poor soul in my forgoing example!!!) The way they take the feathers off of chickens these days is they put the chickens in a big spinning machine that sorta looks like a drying machine. As the chicken spins round and round, the feathers come off, but that's not the only thing this process does. As you might imagine, a dead chicken isn't going to really have very good control over its bowels and this spinning all about is enough to empty the honeysuckle right out of the bird. And on account of all the spinning you can rest assured that your chicken gets covered in its own honeysuckle. So, next time somebody says "hmm, tastes just like chicken." Your brain will translate it as "hmmm, must taste like honeysuckle."

 

[Unacceptance]

Believe me, I know all about how awful foods are treated and made. There is a reason I don't eat pork and beef and am working on cutting out chicken. (Dairy somewhere down the line)

But I am comfortable with my evil. Ignorance is still a lie (remember it's no defense). I am perfectly aware the land I inhabit probably belonged to some poor happy free native that was stripped of his land against his will and probably had his family raped and murdered. I am aware the the clothes I am wearing were most likely manufactured by some child slave in a third world country we "brought" civilization to after destroying his country. I know all of the goods I use on a daily basis are the results of workers being treated shittier and shittier for some guy in a suit to line his pockets then run away with their retirement funds and leave the company to crash and burn all the while cheating on his wife and ******* up his kids who will end up shooting up a school or becoming some kid of addicts. I pay for these goods with money which is then taxed that goes into funding the bombing of countries I have never been to and killing people I have never met.

None of it means that I accept lying to myself as a reason to keep living.

Maybe if people faced the ******* facts some of these things would change because enough people would get pissed off enough about it happening. There is a saying in my language, "Querer tapar el sol con un dedo" It means trying to block the sun with one finger. It's still there, shielding yourself from it changes nothing, but it sure makes you look like a jackass. (not you specifically, the person willingly taking on ignorance so they can smile while being empty headed and carefree while the world rapes them)

 

[Hijacc]

Gah. you cant call it bad or good they both have their perks I say its in between.


Knowledge is power.
Innocence is bliss.

 

[Scott]

I don't think lying to yourself is a very healthy alternative to not facing something that hurts.

I wasn't actually talking about lying to yourself. Self-denial of the truth is obviously not a good thing in the long run and will usually only serve to prolong the hurt in the end. I was talking about removing the need for someone else to hurt unessasarily.

I would hope that my friends would do this for me as I would do for them, in the right situation. As I said, judgement is called for.

 

[Lonesome Crow]

Sometimes you have to learn how to read between the lines.






See...the space between the lines ?..There's nothing.lol
Surely, I'm not less human than anyone else one this planet to determind truth for myself.

The fact is thousands are being murdered everyday for minerals
required to make componants in your PC, Ipod, Iphone and whatever electronic gadget,
that you deem you can't live without.lol

Can you justified removing yourself from this truth ?...I mean, deny yourself from using your PC anymore.lmao
You're either part of the salution or part of the problem.lol
Make a decision and live with it....

Good greef man...be a vegetarian becuase eating animals is a sin.
But the belts and shoes that you wear are made from animal skin.lmao
The perfume that you wear are made from animals.
The pillow you rest your head on is made from dead chicken feathers.lol
Save the earth ? What the hell for?
The earth dosn't need saving. The earth did fine long before man ever came around and
the earth will do fine with man.lmao

 

[NeverMore]

the knowledge of building massive weapons such as nuclear bombs and hydrogen bombs in the first place are these an example of something that shouldn't have been known? Things that we should have upon learning, suppressed and kept anyone else from knowing?

What about:

If Iran gained the ability to launch long distance nuclear devices?

If businesses learned to beam thoughts directly in your head to force you to buy their product?

If we learned how to create a biological weapon more potent than AIDS,Ebola,Tuberculosis and Polio all wrapped in one amazingly destructive and nasty organism?

 

[Unacceptance]

the knowledge of building massive weapons such as nuclear bombs and hydrogen bombs in the first place are these an example of something that shouldn't have been known? Things that we should have upon learning, suppressed and kept anyone else from knowing?

What about:

If Iran gained the ability to launch long distance nuclear devices?

If businesses learned to beam thoughts directly in your head to force you to buy their product?

If we learned how to create a biological weapon more potent than AIDS,Ebola,Tuberculosis and Polio all wrapped in one amazingly destructive and nasty organism?

Learning these things is the first step in learning how to counter them. Besides, people would ******* love to have honeysuckle beamed into their heads by corporations, they already willingly turn on their TV to get their daily dose of broadcast diarrhea. I can almost hear the cheering of people who feel inconvenienced by having to turn on their TV in order to get brainwashed.

 

[SilentThinker]

Knowledge is not good or bad.

It is how we used it that it becomes good or bad.