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Released in 2010, the movie Inception has quickly become a cult favorite around the world. Masterfully mixing action, drama, and emotion, Christopher Nolan truly delivers an experience worth watching on the big screen. However, hidden between all the explosions, deaths, and tears lies a simple theme exploring ignorance, linking it to the letters of 1984. Here’s the action-packed trailer to the movie.

As a quick run-down, let’s go over the plot of Inception. Note that this article will contain spoilers: if you haven’t watched the movie yet, go watch it now. Don’t worry, I’ll wait. Back? Awesome. Inception tells the story of widower Dom Cobb, a skilled dream extractor on the run. Cobb’s skills lie in the world of shared dreaming, a technology invented by the military in order for soldiers to collaboratively practice battle scenarios in dreams. This has several benefits; for instance, a soldier dying in a dream would only result in their waking up. The special secret with dreams, however, is that they allow people to access someone’s mental state: their ambitions, goals, and ideas. As a dream extractor, Cobb steals ideas within the minds of prosperous businessmen in their dreams, in order to leak them to other companies. However, someone soon comes to Cobb’s door asking for a unique job: was it possible to plant an idea rather than to steal one? Though his teammates vehemently deny the plausibility of that notion, Dom reconsiders. Through various flashbacks, we learn that he had indeed accidently done so before, to his wife. By planting the idea that reality was a dream in itself, Cobb leads his wife, believing that she would be waking up in the real world, to commit suicide. As a result, he is forced to leave the country and his kids. Through various mind-bending tricks and explanations, Cobb attempts to perform inception once more, in an attempt to be reunited with his family.

Phew. Definitely a mind-trick of an explanation in itself. Between the various levels of complexity, however, is hidden the remarkable theme of ignorance is bliss. But let’s take a step back and think of dreaming itself, for a moment. Isn’t it true bliss? When we dream, we have absolutely no idea that we’re in one. As Cobb puts it, “Dreams feel real while we’re in them. It’s only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.” As a result, we see that one’s ignorance to their true place in reality can indeed imbue them with a sense of bliss. Throughout the entire movie, those who have no idea of their dreaming state are highly comfortable with themselves and truly enjoy the experience of dreaming. On the other hand, those who are aware that they are dreaming (such as extractors) are also aware that anything that happens would only be restricted to their minds, and nothing happy would stay so.

As a result, the life led by extractors is painful and filled with regret. Most of us retire to a night’s sleep wondering what adventures lay waiting for us in our dreams, though this isn’t a belief shared by extractors. The knowledge that they are simply dreaming destroys their bliss from the act of doing so.

In literature, pain is something that often follows true knowledge, and 1984 is no exception. Winston learns the truth behind the government through the book Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, written by Goldstein. Soon after doing so, however, he is thrown into a jail cell and tortured by the government for his radical ideas and rebellious notions. Winston is quite similar to extractors in Inception; both know the painful reality of their world, and are forced to suffer as a result. When talking about the government, Winston states that, “In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it.” (75). Unlike the general populace, the knowledge that both have about their world drives them to pain. When contrasted with ignorant people, both Cobb and Smith show a definite lack of bliss.

In the middle of the movie, there’s a particular scene in which we see people utilizing the shared dream world extensively, almost to the point of obsession. You see, in a dream, time goes faster than in real life, as the mind constructs reality at a quicker pace. A few hours of sleep in real life, for instance, can equate to several days’ worth of dreaming. In this scene, there’s several people in an underground room who use the shared dreaming interface for several hours each day in order to dream and construct the reality that they want. Due to the time dilation, this translates to them essentially living in their dreams, for days at a time. I found this particular exchange fascinating.

Cobb: After a while [shared dreaming] becomes the only way you can dream.

Eames: They come here every day to sleep?

Old Man: No. They come to be woken up. The dream has become their reality. Who are you to say otherwise?

These people have ignored the fact that dreaming is not reality, and have left behind various hopes and dreams that they wished for themselves in the real world. By losing themselves in the dream world, they’ve glimpsed at what they feel is true joy: having the power to do whatever they want and change the outcomes of anything. That kind of power is definitely intoxicating, hinting as to the reasons of their addiction. Sometimes, ignoring reality can truly lead to a sense of bliss.

This question of whether reality is subjective is one that’s explored thoroughly in 1984 as well. As O’Brien explains to Winston as he is being tortured, “‘Have you ever seen those bones, Winston? Of course not. Nineteenth-century biologists invented them. Before man there was nothing. After man, if he could come to an end, there would be nothing. Outside man there is nothing.’” (265). O’Brien insists that reality is simply what one makes of it, rather than what is actually true. The party is able to enforce this dogma by enforcing ignorance throughout society. The party can allow anything to be seen as true, as in their eyes, the beliefs of their citizens make it so.

The last scene of the movie, one that is highly debated, is also one where I believe that this theme is manifested (the interesting portion begins around 2:40). Throughout the film, Cobb is obsessed with the fact of whether or not he is dreaming. At various points in the film, we see him frantically attempting to check whether or not he is in reality by spinning his totem: a top which never topples in dreams, though falls normally in reality. At the end, Cobb finally returns to America in order to see his children, something he has not been able to do for years. When he sees his children, he spins his totem as usual to ensure that he is indeed in reality, though he soon looks away and moves to embrace his children. As we see the totem spin, the screen cuts to black, leaving the viewer in doubt whether or not Cobb is dreaming.

Cobb’s initial compulsive need to know whether he is dreaming reflects his desire for knowledge and the grip of reality. As mentioned earlier, dreams were places in which things could go wrong for extractors, who preferred the cold logic of reality to the world of imagination. At the sight of his children, however, Cobb is taken by the same sense of bliss which surrounded the people in the underground chamber. Whether he is dreaming or not doesn’t matter to him, as the emotions that he experienced are real.

As we've seen, the theme of ignorance being bliss is implied in both 1984 and Inception. However, we see different takes on this same subject. 1984 presents a society in which individuality has been lost due to the collective ignorance of the masses; everyone displays the same mindless sense of happiness. In contrast, Inception shows a world in which emotion trumps the immutable will of knowledge. We can see this from either perspective, but in the end, isn’t reality merely what you believe it is?

-G

As children, we’re often viewed by society as being pure and innocent, a metaphorical tabula rasa. However, the various evils of time commence attacking us from the moment of our birth, both in body and mind. Our body withers and ages, crumbling into dust as the years drag by. And our mind?

We lose our innocence. This loss of innocence is commonly seen as a rite of passage in today’s society, though with it comes a greater cost than simply the knowledge of the workings of the world. By acquiring this knowledge about the world, we lose our carefree sense of happiness. Ignorance is bliss, it is said, and nowhere can we see this better in action than with the loss of innocence in those around us and within ourselves.

At first glance, the concepts of ignorance and innocence may appear to be different, though they are actually the same thing, when placed in the context of this article. As we grow, we acquire knowledge of the real world, something that eventually causes us to lose the initial bliss we were born with. The real world is a dangerous and dark place, something that can be understood only through the experience of pain. Our ignorance melts away in the heat of this understanding, followed with our childlike innocence on how the world works.

Oftentimes, this change in mindset occurs quite slowly, over the period of several years during our teenage periods. The discovery of greed, perhaps, or the understanding of jealousy. It may happen in a different manner for each person, though there’s no denying that all of us reading this article have unequivocally at least began to lose our innocence.

Due to this slow change, I believed that it was possible to track the differences in ignorance and bliss as people slowly grow older. As one’s age grows, both their ignorance and their bliss happen to slowly fade. Interestingly, there’s exists a parallel with 1984 with this acquisition of knowledge and destruction of bliss. The three social classes of people in the novel, as shown below, clearly embody patterns seen in adults, teenagers, and young children. In order to see this in action, I decided to interview people from three different categories: adults, teens, and children. As I expected, this broad difference in the innocence of the three varied quite a bit, and their insights into various questions were quite eye-opening.

As expected, all of the adults that I talked to immediately responded that their innocence had been lost. However, they all believed that it was, in the end, a positive thing. The adults generally mentioned that the realities of society and responsibilities have forced them into a position in which their loss of innocence was the only way to handle the way things were. Without the maturity that came with this loss, they wouldn’t have been able to cope or make sense of the reality that they were placed into. When talking to them, I couldn’t help notice that many of the judgements about the world that they had made were highly negative, likely stemming from the painful experiences that came with dealing with their rite of passage. In addition, these adults placed a larger emphasis on happiness stemming from concepts like power and money, rather than a materialistic point of view.

While performing these interviews, I definitely saw a parallel between the views of adults and the Inner Party: the group that controls the government, and thus, the men of the country. With infinite authority at their fingertips and knowledge of the uncensored truth, these powerful people can be thought of as adults. Both adults and the Inner Party knew the way that the world truly worked. In addition, both had an innately negative view concerning the world, likely stemming from the pain of experience. As O’Brien, an Inner Party member, mentions, “But always – do not forget this, Winston – always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler.” (267). Greed is a concept that shows most directly in both adults and the Inner Party.

Moving on, the teens had responses that ranged across the board. Many were mellow, insisting that their innocence had not been lost and that they had been able to isolate their knowledge of the world and emotions from their innocence. Others dejectedly mentioned that their innocence was completely lost. However, the great majority had responses in the middle. As a teenager myself, I definitely feel the stresses and responsibilities of the real world pressuring me. However, at the same time, my inner child (so as so speak) runs rampant, asking questions about the world and imagining extravagant scenarios.

The behavior of teens bears a strong connection to the Outer Party, limited members of the government. Teens often glimpse at the truth that lies beyond their world, though many make the decision to stay innocent and within their little protective bubbles. In either case, teenagers are marked by a slow and laborious understanding of their world, and both ignorance and bliss disappears at slow, yet steady rates. Likewise, the members of the Outer Party often glimpse at the truth of the government and its power, though many decide to not pursue that lead and stay ignorant. Members of this Party often fall on a wide spectrum of ignorance, with some, like Winston, knowing the truth at the cost of happiness. In addition, doublethink is a concept that can be uniquely associated with teens. Many of those I interviewed denied that their innocence had been lost, though their experiences showed otherwise. Likewise, the government uses doublethink to enforce false beliefs in the minds of the Outer Party. As Smith so eloquently puts it, these teens expressed the ideas of “To know and to not know, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them.” (35).

And finally, children. As these interviews were conducted through the eyes of parents, there may have been a slight chance of bias, though there’s no doubting the simple truth: all of these kids were positively innocent. As their parents mentioned, many of these young children saw the world through a positive lens: they believed that the world had much to offer, and were highly optimistic were learning about new things.

As I saw it, the proles are what can thought of as young children. Vast potential surrounds them all, yet they cannot see beyond themselves and are blind to the workings of the world. This ignorance, however, breeds pure bliss and they are satisfied with the way that their world is structured. Pure and untainted, children view the world in a similar way. Their belief in goodness breeds a sense of bliss in the world, coupled with trust. Winston Smith reveals this childlike nature of proles, stating that “"Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” (72).

The society in our lives is highly structured around this concept of age. Children depend on their parents to nurture them, both in terms of providing the needs of life and the concepts needed to survive the real world. Before undertaking this interviewing journey, I always imagined the idea of the loss of innocence to be a negative thing. After all, who would like to trade the bliss that arises from ignorance for the pain that stems from knowledge? However, I now see that my view was quite shortsighted.

As I look inward, I now see that my loss of innocence has meant something to me. The knowledge of how the world works has prepared me to do things I could never imagine: do things that I would not have been able to do without this loss. I’m now more capable than I ever was before, though the price paid has been that of innocent happiness. Perhaps bliss isn’t the way to heaven after all.

-G

Special thanks to Aryan Kumar, Estelle Pinai, Neeharika Jaladanki, my Lit Group, and various interviewees who wished to remain anonymous.

Meet James. He’s a great friend—he always cheers you up when you’re down—and you’ve worked together in the same building for years together. You guys share the same inside jokes during your lunch break, go out for movies whenever free, and share your problems and insecurities together. As time goes by, you guys have developed a great rapport, and truly care for each other.

That is, of course, until the day that he disappears entirely. There seems to be no record of him in the company files, no one seems to know who he was, and his workstation has been replaced with a completely new worker, who swears to have been there since the company started. It’s easy to imagine the type of response that we would have in this sort of situation: desperate panic, a sort of hunger to know the truth about the person you cared about. However, the world created by George Orwell in 1984 portrays a society in which people simply don’t seem to care for each other.

There’s a technique known as vaporizing in this novel, and it involves destroying all physical evidence of a person’s life following their murder by the state. As Smith puts it, “Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten.” (14). At first glance, it seems that the memory of a person would stay forever with those that they touched in their life. Love is an eternal feeling; one’s friendship is not merely dictated by documents and data, it is something beyond all quantification. This supposition is turned upside down by this society, however.

Orwell presents a society in which people simply do not care about others, and thus do not mind when those they knew are vaporized. Ignorance, indeed, is said to be the opposite of love. When people are vaporized, other characters do not seem to display any sort of emotional remorse. In fact, after vaporizing a character, Smith proclaims that the man, “…was already an unperson. He did not exist: he had never existed.” (73).

Can one call this a sort of bliss? I know that I would definitely feel an indescribable pain if this were to happen to any of my friends. Nevertheless, the society in 1984 shows that people do not feel this same remorse when placed in an identical situation. The lack of pain can definitely be called a sort of bliss. Does this result from people not truly loving each other? Love doesn’t necessarily mean the romantic type, of course; a friendship may be considered as displaying it as well. As a result, perhaps the totalitarian government is attempting to keep their citizens in a state of permanent bliss by not giving them access to the true power of love.

In this case, ignorance truly does lead to bliss. As people do not care about those around them, they are eternally in a state of happiness, uncaring about anything except themselves. I can’t help but see that there’s definitely a connection with this ideal and that of Ayn Rand’s novella, Anthem. Rand depicted a similar society, in which people are seen to always be in a state of “happiness” due to the government constraining their freedom. Perhaps the governments really do care about the state of the citizen in these societies, and imbue them with irrefutable happiness.

What do you think? Should people live in a state of happiness, without having ever loved? Or should they be given the freedom to experience heartbreak and pain, with the confidence that they had done so? Comment below, and let the world know.

“Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.”

~Lord Tennyson