In her most recent post, Gina asked in reference to the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, "Do you think it is safe for a procedure such as this to take place? Should science take over to force knowledge to be more important that imagination, memory, and hope that a imaginings of yesterday could become realities of today?" In response, I disagree with this particular procedure on the sole claim that as humans, we can learn from everyone and everything. It would be nice to erase painful memories or even certain people's participation in our lives so that we would shed less tears, regret less, or only react to our (happy) thoughts and memories with more happiness. But what would we learn? Without our mind's ability to substitute possibilities into past memories or future plans--creativity--would we learn anything at all? Would knowledge be of any value? I believe that every person and situation that we encounter has the potential to teach us something about ourselves and about the world. It's all just a matter of whether or not we choose to see it. Knowledge is supposed to teach us and equip us with tools for future obstacles. But I don't believe that true knowledge can exist without imagination--without the ability to think beyond what we know, hypothetically, creatively. Selective knowledge to spare our emotions (like the procedure used in Eternal Sunshine) seems like it would be robbing us of valuable knowledge and tools for emotional and personal growth. We shouldn't select what we feel or what we know. The two coincide with one another and would waiver and eventually fall without their counterpart.
What do you think?
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