This week in class we talked about the 1920's and the era of extreme consumerism that developed during that time. Ignorance is bliss. This common, horrendously overused cliché could not be more relevant. Here are these happy people of the 1920's (pre stock market crash mind you) who are spending like there is no tomorrow. Now claiming that for these people that ignorance is bliss is absurd, because they had to live through the Depression post 1929. If this ignorance really is bliss, its a very temporary, very fragile bliss. These people cannot claim ignorance either, the National Thrift Committee published this warning; advising citizens to "invest carefully," and "make a budget," things that, if they did, they could have avoided the Depression. These 10 steps were supposed to lead to "Success and happiness" but instead they got the hardship of a deep recession. The people of the 1920's had warning signs, and they eventually had the hardships of the Depression. This makes it safe to say that they were neither ignorant nor blissful. If this isn't a sign for people today to be on the watch for these warnings, I don't know what is. The 1920's is a perfect example of how there is no possible way for ignorance to be bliss.
The citizens were still at bliss for the years leading up to the depression. They did not know of the incoming doom and were plenty happy not knowing. Of course if they had known they could have prepared, but the ignorance still provided bliss at the time.
ReplyDeleteI think that for the time, ignorance was bliss and people really thought that their country was immune to the plagues, both physical (war) and economical (depressions), of the past. However Americans today no longer possess that ignorance which is why we are smarter consumers, we learned from the mistakes of previous generations in order to make sure we maintain our comfortable lives and restrain ourselves from overindulgence.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think about what I would've done in the roaring 20's if I lived in that era. I would like to think that if someone told me to invest and save my money in case something horrible were to happen, I would do it. However, since everyone in that era was spending their money like there was no tomorrow, I think I would've done that too just because of the influence. What we need to learn about the Great Depression is that we always have to be careful with our money in case something happens. I really enjoyed your post on the topic because you're totally right. If they weren't ignorant to the fact that something horrible could happen, they could have prevented the crash.
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting how people can be a lot happier when they don't know what's going on. i think that the people didn't just not know about the warning signs, but they actively ignored the signs because they thought they were invincible, which was obviously false. Hopefully, we learn from our mistakes and don't repeat something like this ever again.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that the people of the 1920s indulged in this bliss, but I think that they were not entirely ignorant because of the ghastly and devastating effects that World War One had on them. As a result, people found comfort in that bliss, and they wanted to enjoy it as much as possible, but it did become extreme.
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