Ignorance is Not Always Bliss

             One of the main reoccurring attitudes in Dark Tide was ignorance. From the very beginning of the novel the ignorance of the USIA, Jell in particular showed. Jell refused to acknowledge the fact that the tank was faulty. All he cared about was making money and looking good in front of his bosses. Jell was clueless as to how to construct a tank of any magnitude, let alone one so large and he did not even care enough to test the tank. When I first started reading Dark Tide, the expression "ignorance is bliss" came to mind. Before Jell admitted to not knowing how to build a tank I thought he was just being greedy. He wanted money, but as the book went on the ignorance showed more and more. Random people throughout the story mentioned their concerns for the tank and nothing was ever done about it. When the tank finally collapsed the bliss disappeared. Jell could no longer pretend that he did not know the tank had problems. He then had to prepare to testify and admit that he knew nothing. The USIA tried to continue to be ignorant of the situation, denying any claims of the tank being faulty and blaming anarchists.
              If the USIA had just admitted to the faulty tank, they could have temporarily shut down the tank to rebuild it, and still remained a credible company. They probably still would not lost as much money and they would have been able to keep the tank on the harbor. They would have made even more money before prohibition started. Ignorance may be bliss in some cases, but in the case of the USIA, their ignorance cost them their credibility as a supplier and a lot of money on top of that.