Can Ignorance Be Bliss?

Back in the 1980s, when Studio 54 was in its heyday, I taught high school science in New York City for a few years. Having graduated from a large public high school myself in a suburb of Cleveland, living in Manhattan in the early ’80s was a culture shock for me: exhilarating and wild but also a little scary. I was amazed at how many people were crowded into the city. The sidewalks were filled with drug users, sex workers, and mentally ill indviduals — many of whom seemed very angry and sometimes threw projectiles at others for no apparent reason.