Maintaining Ignorance
Often times, life will throw individuals with obstacles that hit them by surprise, and the reaction and recovery from these low points of life become the deciding factors of how one will go on and manage their futures. Adversity is inevitable; it is the one thing in this world that is guaranteed. Everyone is bound to endure some sort of conflict, major or minor, throughout their development and growth as a fragment of society. In most cases, major turmoil will shift one’s whole life, swaying their beliefs and worldviews. This in turn will affect the ways in which the individual will react to different situations of life. When an individual is faced with a life changing experience-that is not seen to be for the better- their whole perspective will change, leaving them lost as their previous truths and beliefs have all been dominated by this one feat. One may either recover from this by finding certainty and comfort in something such as music or love, or one may be led to complete isolation as their need for assurance is not being accommodated for. The need to know everything, the assurance being ignorant brings is what most individuals manage to feel safe and secure in.
When one experiences a life changing event that leads them down a dark path, it is hard to find light and be led back to reality. This temporary darkness, this separation from the world can take over one’s mind, and depending on how long this type of darkness resides in one’s life, these feelings associated with being trapped in a negative space can become all one knows of. The power of these feelings can be so impactful that they can cause an individual to lose all hope for their future. Different circumstances, different adversities will expose one to emotions and outcomes that they otherwise would have never faced. Once these obstacles and perhaps this type of darkness leaves an individual’s life, they must learn how to go on with these new understanding of the world they have developed. From here, they must dictate how they will view the world, and question their status quo and decide what is going to be different about their present, but also their future. Some may be even invest time in viewing their past experiences with this new point of view in times of desperation for certainty. Certainty in this case becomes an essential need because ignorance is in human nature, it is a natural desire to know and be the knowledge holders of as many things as possible. This is a key reason as to why certainty becomes so prominent of a need in one’s life. Individuals will always have some level of ignorance within themselves, which is completely abolished in times of major adversity, and restoring and eventually maintaining this ignorance becomes the ultimate quest for some. In McKay’s “Setting Up the Drums” it is depicted how one’s perspectives are solidified through music. Music will allow for the acceptance of all emotions and will help restore one’s confidence towards the world and how they view it because music allows one to experience and feel emotions they otherwise would question to face. Finding comfort in music will help one cope with how they handle uncertainty because it will give them some sort of satisfaction of having something they completely know and understand to grip onto.
Life changing situations however, can also lead one into total isolation. Some experiences are just simply more traumatic and more difficult to recover from. For some, what comes after is just as troublesome as the adversity itself. This uncertainty can be so overwhelming for some that they will try to run from it because they cannot find any type of reassurance. In the excerpt from Redemption, Jack becomes so lost that he gets to a point where it is almost as if the fight for certainty becomes hopeless.
Certainty is something that helps individuals feel safe and secure because it gives people the comfort and confidence that whatever happens, it will be manageable. In my life, there have been many instances where my ignorance has influenced my state of certainty. In times of adversity, I find my level of certainty being tested and in turn, I will combat to this threat of my general mental state by becoming ignorant. Searching for the consistency in being confident so that my beliefs are not overthrown by some alternative reality. The truth of it all is that nobody wants to be taken by surprise. It is a very difficult feat to overcome when you realize all that you know is not entirely true. It is terrifying, yet thrilling at the same time. Those who fear losing certainty and fear having to approach the world with a new worldview will take on a state of ignorance and close themselves off from the world.
Loss of certainty causes one to be left confused and opts one to strive for a different way in which an individual takes on the world. This often times will be feared thus leaving people to put up a defence barrier with ignorance.
