Ignorance is bliss as they say. While this may be true, it’s hard to connect with this statement. Reason being that you can talk about ignorance being bliss only after you’ve known something that takes away your bliss. And once you are in the know of something, you can only connect with “the knower” and not “the ignorant”.

So, even though ignorance may be bliss, and it may be a deeply philosophical statement with casual overtones, I can’t connect with it. Being a knower, what I can connect with is “The Knower’s Dilemma”.

Let’s dive deeper here. Once you are in the know of something; something that takes away your bliss, you are faced with a choice. You can either stay put and continue to feel miserable or you can take the responsibility for changing things.

Let’s say, you participated in a competition. Someone won the competition but you found out that the competition was rigged. Other participants don’t know it. So, the ignorant participants are blissful while you may feel a tinge of misery. If you do nothing, you’d continue to feel that tinge of misery. If you take responsibility to undo this wrong, it’s not going to be blissful road either. This is the knower’s dilemma.

Competition is one example but it practically works at so many different levels. I particularly became aware of “the knower’s dilemma” in a different context. Over time, I am getting to know my personality better. And as I learn more about myself, I become more and more aware of my traits that can be viewed as shortcomings with respect to my aspirations. Now, I am aware of my aspirations as well as the traits that stand in the way of these aspirations. So, the question for me becomes whether I just let things be or change my aspirations or change my personality.

And each of these choices is equally hard. And that’s the knower’s dilemma.