To be specific: while you and two buddies were touring various alternate EArths on a Rhymer Enterprises travel package, you found yourself on a world where ghosts, poltergeists and other such nasties actually exist. At different times, all three of you got body-jacked by a murderous demon, under whose influence at least one of you committed a series of brutal murders.
Now the good news is that your RhE travel package included a free rescue, and when you called the RhE Help Desk, the phone was answered by the tremendously competent Hermione Granger. Being tremendously competent, Hermione grabbed her wand and grimoire, chdcked out a continua buggy, and rushed to your side In less than a day she had not only proven freed all three of you of all magickal compulsions but persuaaded the authorities that, no matter whose body was used to stab the orphans to death, neither you nor your friends should be held responsible. (Not that RhE cares; we are, after all, criminals, and you had a valid bust-us-outta-the-joint coupon, so we’d have gotten you out of the pokey no matter what.)
But one thing Hermione didn’t do was find out which of you was used to commit the murders. It just wasn’t relevant to the problem of getting you back home safe and un-possessed.She has the demon trapped in a soul jar and already plans to compel it to reveal everything that happened; if you want you can sit on on this interview, or just get a summary of that interview . If you prefer , she can restore your memory of what “you” did while possessed. Or she can do nothing, leaving your blissfully ignorant.
Tell me more about the deluxe Rymer Enterprises travel package…are drinks included?
I would sit in on the demon interview, not so much for finding out if my hands were used to murder the orphans as much as I’d want to learn all about demons and what he can reveal to me about the nature of the universe in which we live.
Generally the answer to these “Would you prefer to know if…” dilemmas is simply “yes”. Because generally-speaking I care more about the facts of the matter than just optimizing my mood.
But in this example, where I’ve visited crazo world, with magic creatures, where who knows how common murder is, or whether the demon would have just controlled someone else if I hadn’t been there, and all of which has no bearing on the universe I’m actually from…I think it’s pointless knowing, and would upset me for no useful reason.
It’s not your universe – scratch that. It’s not your world you’ll be learning about, though. TH OP is meant to imply, and I’ll explicitly state right now, that demonic possessions of this sort can’t happen on your home Earth.
How much information do you want? That is, do you want a dry recitation of the facts (Yes, Mr. Bricker, your hands were used to slit the throats of all those 6-year-olds)’ do you want Hermione to let you set in on the interview with the demon (who, even if leashed, is surely try to make things as uncomfortable as possible for you); or do you want your memories of the events restored (you’re crazy if you think I’m gonna describe what THOSE might be)?
Agreement with both of these insights. Yes, I really would prefer knowledge to ignorance…but if the knowledge can be kept abstract and a bit clinical, rather than in-my-face and immediate, that’s preferable.
(I will never be able to visit a Holocaust Memorial museum or display. I can’t face that level of horror. I need to know, as all mankind needs to know, that such evil existed, and very horrible things exist today. But I don’t gain anything from looking at pictures of it. I won’t watch ISIS beheading videos either.)
What good is the knowledge going to do you? You’re morally innocent of hte crimes; your rescuer doesn’t care; and the authorities have agreed to let you off. Other than giving you something to angst over, how can you profit from being told you were the instrument of the orphans’ beheadings (or something even more gruesome).
On principle, ignorance is almost never superior to knowledge.
Just because The Powers That Be will not lay the crime on your head doesn’t guarantee you’re home free. Vengeance is something you may have to keep your eyes open for. You can’t defend yourself against something you aren’t aware of.
2a) In case you’re about to say “They’re orphans! No body loves them! No one would take vengeance for them!”… I will remind you: vigilantism. The modern media culture has no lack of evil people capable of stirring up irrational shit for their own benefit, or for lulz. And it doesn’t necessarily take much for them to provoke some clueless yokel with a highly-developed sense of righteous indignation and too many firearms to “get justice for Little Suzy!”
Likewise, if you’re going to get harassed by the press, it’s probably better to be able to answer coherently about it rather than boggling at the cameras stuck in your face and asking “What are you talking about?”
Saying that knowledge is almost always superior to ignorance is equivalent to saying that there are very rare situations in which ignorance is superior. This might be one of them. The knowledge that your body was used to kil little kids would prey on most people even if reason told lthem they were not morally liable.
You’re not staying on the world where the crime took place, and you may take it as a given that RhE won’t help someone from that world follow you home; that would be an implicit violation of the agreement to comeif save your ass. But if someone from that world s driven enough to find another way to follow you, and also doesn’t care that your moral innocence of the crime, I doubt that person will care which of the three EarthPrimers was used to do the deed. You’ll have to look out for revenge seekers either way.
2a) I wuuldn’t say such a thing.
How e hell is the press going to get wind of this? A reporter comes to RhE for a statement is gonna get shot in the face for getting in our business–
Well, not a female reporter. RhE doesn’t harm women unless they attack us first. Hmm, that may be a flaw in our procedures, but it’s more your problem than mine.
That wasn’t the basis for my preference. I didn’t argue that it would benefit me in any way.
I want to know the truth. “Know Yourself” is one of the great recommendations from classical philosophy. The punk in Dirty Harry who said, “I gots to know” received no benefit from the knowledge, but was pursuing it for its own sake.
If it was involuntary, I’m not going to angst about it, any more than a round of “Why are you hitting yourself!” with the class bully would make me think I was into self-harm. Nor do I view my body as some sacred construct that is capable of accumulating some sort of psychic burden over unwilled actions.
I just plain like knowing facts, and this is a fact I could know. Experiencing stuff is another matter, there I like to pick and choose. But in all my life I’ve yet to come across the abstract fact I haven’t wanted to stuff in my noodle. I might not want to sit in on the interview, but I’m cool with reading the clinical details afterwards.
I’ll sit in on the interview with a video camera running. Someday video might surface of my body being used in committing these acts and I’d like to be able to show I wasn’t driving at the time.
