Ignorance: the lack of knowledge, education, or awareness.
Is: to be.
Bliss: a state of complete, supreme happiness, joy, or contentment. A feeling of perfect peace and harmony, entirely free from worry, pain, or distress.
To think about how babies see the world. Food, toys, and parents who love me. Not a worry in the world. That’s amazing, for them. That changes once we grow up.
Bills. Responsibilities. Health. “Real” things are going on. The unawareness we once had about the way OUR world works is gone. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. I’ll be frustrated because my flight was delayed, my Wi-Fi is slow, or my coffee order is wrong. We face the reality that we won’t always get what I want.
But lets think bigger. The babies of the world.
As westerners, we are so ignorant. Not always intentionally. But ignorant nonetheless. We move through our lives unaware of the struggles, histories, and realities that exist across the Atlantic. We get a splash of the fact that there are people that live different lives than we do. But hearing and seeing are not the same thing. There is a certain discomfort in that heartstring that gets pulled when these horrors are brought into the light.
Coming to South Africa has forced me to see.
Statelessness, doverty, displacement, the oh-so-obvious remnants of apartheid that can still be seen in the demographics of those in the working class compared to those they serve. You begin to notice things that become impossible to unsee. And once you see them, what then?
As a common, ordinary 19-year-old citizen of the United States, what can I do?
What is there to do?
… when the people with the power are to make change are choosing to stay ignorant and are structurally benefiting from our ignorance? What happens when governments, institutions, and systems are built in ways that allow people to remain comfortable enough not to ask questions?
Because it is blissful not to know, to act like we don’t. It is blissful not to feel responsible, to be selfish.
Because ignorance is bliss, that “kid feeling.” Its easy, it asks nothing of you
I don’t want it!
Maybe that’s what South Africa has taught me most.
Awareness is uncomfortable and frustrating, it elicits questions that are difficult to answer. But that’s okay when it equips you with the knowledge that can allow for change.
I just landed in Cape Town, taking in so much heavy information about South African history and it’s current state made me I realize that ignorance is only bliss for the person who gets to remain ignorant. For everyone else, the consequences are very real. Change has to be made, to put it frankly. We, our generation, are the next change makers! And it starts right here in VAGH, as we share the stories of individuals, families, communities through the most robust medium of communication to ever exist. So get excited y’all!
Love,
Sekai GF