Learned Ignorance
Imagine a man with a pair of glasses. They are perfectly clear, so as not to distort or obscure the man’s vision in any way. As he goes about his life, he sees things. The things he considers important, he takes special note of. Fearing that he might forget these important things, or might not see them as clearly as he once did, he comes up with a clever plan. He decides to draw an image of them on his lenses.
As time passes, the glasses become filled with drawings of all shapes and sizes. It is not long before there is only a small spot in the center through which he can glimpse the outside world. But then something happens. The man begins to walk. As he walks, the images on his glasses do not move, even though his body has moved. Though he now stands in a different place, he sees the images from his old perspective.
When action is called for, he acts according to the images he sees on his glasses. Not realizing that those images which may have once been true are now false, his actions fail to meet their desired result. He begins to think that he simply didn’t try hard enough. So he doubles his efforts. Still they do not work.
Dismayed, the man turns his eyes away from the results he has been seeking. In a last-ditch effort, he decides to start measuring his success in terms of progress, rather than whether or not he has achieved his goal. For many years, he continues in this way. As his progress slows, he develops complicated new ways of measuring it. Each new method allows him the satisfaction of seeing that he is still moving towards his goal.
On his deathbed, he examines his charts. He looks at where he started. He looks at the progress he has made. What at first was pleasing now begins to gnaw at him beneath the surface. He rips up his charts. Taken by a sudden urge to truly see the world around him, the man took off his glasses. His heart begins to race as he becomes fully aware of his situation.
“Of what use is all this progress if after 80 years I have still not achieved my goal. I wasted my life because I asked the wrong questions. In my search for knowledge, I blinded myself to reality. That stops now.”
When the shock of the man’s initial realization had worn off, his heart began to slow. His emotions calmed down. And then, as if for no reason at all, a bittersweet smile crept over his face. He thought to himself, “At least I will not die in my sleep.”