Ignorance is Bliss

Ivan Ilych suffers incredible anguish because he can’t come to grips with the meaning of his life. It is not impossible to imagine. We spend most our lives achieving success based on society’s standards. The worst realization would be that most of our lives are spent achieving society’s standards of success. Most of our time on earth will be spent working towards a set of standards created by the successful and proper society that we are trying to join. They are not even our own goals. And if we convince ourselves that they are our own goals, they just happen to fit right in with the man’s expectations and everything is just great. You know who I envy? The ski bum. There is a person who has their priorities straight. Is the ski bum’s life meaningful? Maybe not to you, but your considerations mean nothing to him. Your approval doesn’t add meaning to his existence, so he does not seek it. The real twisted thing about the realization that your life is meaningless if its meaning is influenced by others’ standards is that even though I have just written it down in words, I am going to continue to let society determine at least a significant part of my worth. I am in too deep. I don’t know. I couldn’t imagine to expect reconciliation or rectification or enlightenment of Ivan Ilych’s kind on my deathbed. Instead, if I look at the odds, I choose ignorant bliss. I think I just might choose to remain behind under the illusion of what my life meant. If it really is a meaningful life, then I win. If it isn’t, and I don’t know that it isn’t, I still win. Then again, maybe my life was meaningful and my standards of meaning are wrong, and I lose.