Ignorance

In the 5th century B.C., Sophocles wrote "The happiest life consists in ignorance, Before you learn to grieve and to rejoice." Twenty-five hundred years later his advice still summarizes the circle of life. Ignorance is still bliss but blitheness is America’s most expensive waste product. Ignorance may cost us our hegemony in the future. What American today knows the meaning of MSRP? Advertisers lie to bargain-shoppers when they claim they offer stupendous discounts from the sticker price - the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. The MSRP with its100% markup or at least its unrealistic suggested price, was never meant to reflect the sale price. Consumers shop ignorant. Taxpayers also pay because of their ignorance. The words invest and grant are used with sincere consistency by politicians. Invest really means spending income from taxes and a grant takes money from taxpayers to pay for a program. A study conducted on electrical usage of differing types of TV’s concluded that a plasma TV is more expensive to operate than a conventional TV. The comparison reveals $30 a yr. cost as opposed to a $130 a yr. price tag to power the device 5 hours a day. ( My 25 inch Wal-Mart box is not alight even 3 hours a day, but if I choose, $300 a year would be acceptable for the pleasure it provides ). Only ignorance could put any credence in such meager numbers. $130 a year is a laughable pittance to be paid for a privilege, but the public is expected to be so ignorant it cannot put this number into proper perspective regarding other discretionary expenditures. Another example regards Congressional waste of taxpayers’ dollars. Democrat House Majority Leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi spent $16,000 of taxpayers’ dollars on flowers to impress only 3 foreign dignitaries and $10,000 to employ a speech writer for 1 speech. While we Americans are ignorant, some politician is blissfully spending our money. $26,000 could have supported one worthy American citizen for 1 year or put a worthy student through 1 year of schooling at a prestigious university. Or $26,000 could not have been wasted, period. Doing the wrong thing, however, is possible because of the ignorance of the electorate. As Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio talk host, astutely notes, America is awash in ignorance, drowning in it, costing our country bundles of bucks each and every day. ‘Why worry, be happy’ seems to be our mantra but eventually bodies will metaphorically wash up on our shores with regularity, having died from ignorance. They will be the cause of grief and not rejoicing.