Keen On

For all the hysteria about misinformation and disinformation, maybe we prefer ignorance. That’s the intriguing thesis of the illustrious Columbia University intellectual historian, Mark Lilla, in his new book, Ignorance is Bliss. It all begins, of course, inside Plato’s cave in his Republic, that metaphorical preface to Western thought where we are subjected to illusionary shadows and delusional reflections. And, for Lilla at least, it may end in the America of late 2024, where many of us appear to relish being back in Plato’s cave, staring - sometimes even perhaps knowingly - at illusionary shadows and delusional reflections. So if ignorance is bliss, then what, exactly, is knowledge?Mark Lilla is Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and other publications worldwide. His books include The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics; The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction; The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern