oedipus rex and clothing sold at pacsun

If I, the well-read teenager, were to describe Oedipus the King in a way that my fellow well-read teenagers would understand, it would be with this image:

Pictured above is a meme that teenagers on Twitter use to poke fun at their own willful ignorance. Even though we may be able to laugh at this flaw in ourselves, it feels much more difficult to laugh at Oedipus for his same mistake because the consequences of his story are much more dire. In the play Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is quick to condemn the mystery murderer of the former king of Thebes upon discovering his death. He publicly shames whoever would be brave enough to do such a thing to an honorable man, meanwhile he actually is the shameful murderer in question. This stood out to me as a red flag when I was reading Oedipus Rex to find ways to prove his guilt. The theme of Oedipus being physically seeing but "mentally blind" is now a basic analysis of Oedipus Rex in literary textbooks. In the play, Oedipus makes every attempt to separate himself from any witnesses, evidence, or memories that might suggest his guilt--and it's that willful ignorance that ultimately brings himself, his parents, and his corneas to their untimely demise. Tiresias is the first to bluntly and honestly accuse Oedipus of his crimes, exclaiming "You yourself are the criminal you seek". Just as he is quick to shame the murderer, he is quick to deflect his suspected guilt and instead give blame to Tiresias, accusing him of allying with Creon to undermine him and calling him an ungifted blind man. As the grave is being dug deeper, Oedipus cross examines his wife's increasingly suspicious memory of her first husband, Laius. She shares more about him: the presumably false oracle, his murderers being a group of bandits, and physical features, Oedipus latches onto questionable details that could contradict his guilt in order to soothe his conscience. 

Mulling over ways to successfully write this essay that will both satisfy my self-standards for writing and get me a decent grade, I wanted to find a parallel example that convincingly demonstrated this theme and would be familiar to the general public. Reading over "On Tragic Character", I spent a couple days trying to think of a situation that fit the four standards of Aristotle: a good character who acts within their bounds, realistically and consistently. I figured my best bet was to reference current pop culture and media-- something that 99% of people would understand at a base level whether they wanted to or not, something (or someone) that has been shoved in the faces of us common folk for years. 

Which brings us to my first modern example: celebrity "innocence" and complicity, by Kylie and Kendall Jenner.  

Forbes crowned Kylie Jenner as the youngest self-made billionaire ever in 2019, and her sister Kendall has been ranked the highest paid model in the world since 2017. Together, they share a ready to wear brand, Kendall + Kylie. Over the summer, the girls received backlash from hundreds of thousands of people online after their garment makers in Bangladesh united against their own slave labor after they went unpaid for two months during the COVID-19 outbreak. Historically, mega companies such as the Jenner's exploit their workers in order to become the proclaimed "self-made" breadwinners that they are. But their brand representatives and loyal fans rushed to defend them. In a July post (with comments disabled) to the Kendall + Kylie Instagram, the brand claimed innocence from their accusation through a legal loophole. This reflects what was mentioned before: though Oedipus may be less glamorous than the Jenner brand, they both followed the same game plan: argue with the all-seeing prophet. Or in this case, deny any responsibility of slave labor. Oedipus jumps to discredit Tiresias' knowledge because it paints him out to be the villain, much like the PR team was quick to present their evidence that would clear them of all guilt, which was later debunked by the original whistleblower, Remake. The bottom line is that their workers did get not paid as they stitched tags adorned with their names to their clothing. While I don't imagine that the girls wake up every morning and head to the office, they were aware of the complaints of the laborers and are the representatives of their brand. They had the power to do something for those women who survive off the smallest fraction of what they do. Yet they refused, and the rest of the world moved on. 

Now, on a more sophisticated note, my second connection of the willful ignorance theme leads us to a high school classic more current than the story of Oedipus. In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag fights with himself and the world's expectation of him-- to burn books to prevent dangerous knowledge from reaching society again. He convinces himself that he is separate from his actions, claiming that when he fulfills his duties as a fireman he is being controlled by the Captain, or when he acts opposingly and steals books he is suffering inside a body being controlled by outside forces. Similar to the theme in Oedipus, Montag deliberately further secures his ignorance for the majority of the novel as he continues to burn books, despite being subconsciously aware of what's in front of his face. Not only is he mirroring the actions of Oedipus, but he also tries to force himself into Aristotle's definition of a tragic hero. Although his morals might not convince us as readers that he is a good person, Guy Montag writes himself into his own personal Greek tragedy in which he has the moral character of a hero. 

To wrap this up, the belief that you are a good person that can escape blame or do no wrong is what drives you deeper down the hole of cognitive dissonance. It has been proven not only in ancient Greek literature, but our modern culture and media that those who subject themselves to willful ignorance at the expense of others presumably apart from them are to face imminent consequences. Said consequences can be streamlined into proactive actions, escaped through the privilege of wealth, or turned into a personal downfall with destructive decision making. We are all likely to be guilty of willful ignorance at some point in time, but what matters most is the action taken after in order to show accountability and development of character.