to know

i was pondering whilest on lunch break on monday. i was thinking about people's awareness of truth or lack thereof. i was watching an episode of charmed the other day that dealt with this issue. a powerful group of beings (that leo is a part of apparently) called the avatars was turning the world into a utopia free of evil and demons (thus making the charmed ones' lives much easier). however it all came at a price. all sources of conflict or mailiciousness were removed. not killed, not destroyed, just... removed. nobody knows where they went, but here's the kick: the avatars were controlling people's minds so that they didn't know these people had been erased from existence. these people would vanish in front of their eyes and then they would shake their heads, regain composure, and say "i'm sorry about (name)" "it's ok, he/she's in a better place" then return to whatever they were doing. it reminded me alot of the giver, where one member of the utopian society was charged with harboring all the memories of all things that weren't part of their mundane everyday lives. those included war, death, and pain, which you'd think would be a good thing, but the list goes on. these memories also included color, music, and joy.

so which is better? ignorant "bliss"? or knowing the truth? according to mythology, in the beginning people lived without all horrible things, then something happened and all the pain in the world was brought forward, like in pandora's box and the story of adam and eve. it's perplexing, really; a world without pain and suffering would be wonderful, but being so ignorant is horrifying.

it's all very similar to my theory that you can't truly know happiness without knowing sorrow. there's some mathematics rule that talks about a value equaling something that isn't something else...? (can't remember it) but i DO remember how to phrase it in terms of my theory:

what is the definition of happiness? ecstacy? joy? pleasure beyond compare? you could go through thesaurus after thesaurus listing synonym after synonym for "happiness" but essentially you haven't found out anything! the best definition i could come up with for "happiness" is "being without sorrow". so what is "sorrow"? "being without happiness". in order to understand one you must understand the other. fundamentally it all adds up with perfect logic. now just apply it to real life and there's my theory. the happiest person in the world can't ever know just how happy they are without knowing of the sorrow they are without.

and all within a mere hour lunch break...