But 2008 began in relative ignorance of the catastrophes ahead.
In the run-up to November, George Bush and Al Gore shaped their political appeals to the voters in blissful ignorance of the crisis ahead.
We can read the impassioned argument made by Eric Rosengren, of the Boston Fed, who urged his colleagues to cut rates in September of 2008 in proper dramatic fashion, for the only thing more beautifully tragic than their ignorance of what lies ahead is a monologue describing the future, which they disregard.
The absence of such a procedure leaves would-be leakers, who think they are acting heroically, with no recourse but to keep silent or plunge ahead in ignorance, with potentially grievous consequences for the nation.
In one gloriously mistimed editorial, written just ahead and in ignorance of the raid on Abbottabad, Bill Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, mocked Mr Obama for "leading from behind".
12 You will be asked if you understand the investment (most victims don't want to admit ignorance) and if you are happy to go ahead.
Someone who puts the interests of the community ahead of preserving their own absurd, unshakable ignorance.
The actors, who were speaking ahead of the film's official premiere, also pleaded ignorance on how the film should be interpreted.
But my ignorance and ego emboldened me with the blind audacity that I could conquer whatever challenges lay ahead.
Yet he has already revealed large chunks of the smash that lies ahead in his prelude: a rushing, contradictory, time-jumping, place-jumping stream of lostness, bafflement, ignorance and horror.
