“The world is a recalcitrant place, and there are things about it that we would prefer not to have to recognize,” writes Lilla in the introduction. The hardest to accept are uncomfortable truths about ourselves, and the pain that can cause. The alternative of not knowing may be more comfortable than knowing. The sentiment of “ignorance is bliss” comes from an 18th century Thomas Gray poem, The book is made up of six loosely connected essays that discuss examples of Lilla’s contentions.
Lilla begins with Oedipus, the man who inadvertently married his mother ad killed his father. Unintended, yes, but Oedipus used a series of self-deceptions to avoid the truth and delude himself. actions that all of us take. It takes hard work to achieve self-knowledge , and it’s never ending. We can never rest, thinking we have achieved self-knowledge once and for all. Our self-knowledge is only partial, and the best we can do is recognize that fact, something that Oedipus failed to do. Ironically, then,what develops is a a false knowledge that we are convinced is true knowledge. It makes life easier, at least temporarily.
Another instance in which self- deception occurs with our reliance on “experts”, a practice which goes back to ancient Greece when oracles were trusted to interpret the wisdom of the gods. Today’s oracles are often psychiatrist, psychologists, and medical doctors who help us interpret our maladies, They are authenticated by insurance companies only if their credentials fall within guidelines. Lilla comments, “All the problems of modern bureaucracy are foreshadowed in the history of archaic religions. Again their interpretation can be false, and harmful if they encourage our ignorance.
The idea that we are uncomfortable living in uncertainty is key to Lilla’s thought. He is critical of some aspects of religion, another area that can often succumb to ignorance.. His most interesting observation is that Christianity, after the incarnation of Christ, had no need of any more prophets. The relationship of individuals with God in Protestantism has become individualized, a democratic process that makes every person his own oracle. If that’s true, then it’s easy to argue that God speaks directly to individuals, and that learning and education are secondary.
There’s a political strain that flows from this thought, arguing that America is a uniquely new creation, a kind of innocence that sees America as needing to distance itself from the world of uncertainty and compromise that undermine other nations. We have a clear cut constitution, and even though it was written over 200 yeas ago in a much simpler time, some insist on its absolute clarity as a bible political action., rather than a guide, often shifting and ambiguous, and needing interpretation.
In closing, Lilla invokes Plato’s analogy of the cave where being led out of darkness, people experience the overwhelming brightness of the sun, It may be better to stay within the comfortable vagueness of darkness, rather than sorting out all of the confusing details revealed by the sun.