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blazeofglory
06-09-2009, 06:17 AM
There is a cliché that ignorance is bliss. Indeed it is bliss. Knowledge, power, wealth and happiness are attributes that are mostly mutually exclusive. We think by being powerful, owning a tall building and very expensive cars, marrying a beautiful girl and working for a big office we can achieve happiness.

Today particularly in the age of recession we came to realize that excess greed does not pacify our minds. Therefore accumulation of a mass of wealth also does not reduce our stress levels.

If we closely study behavioral patterns in developing countries we will come across facts that are likely to support this statement in point of fact. I came from an agrarian community and now settled in a very modern and sophisticated social setup living a life of complexity and sophistication. I have technology at my command, home gadgets, and many deluxe, flashy and glitzy things. Yet every second is not without stresses. There is more sense of insecurity and of course impoverishment.

Of course, we see in a world of deficiency amidst stacks of wealth; regality and profuseness are like flashes, and they are not things that accompany you throughout life. I am not an escapist at all. I am not pessimistically inclined in life.

Yet I choose the middle path. For excessive greed leads to ruin. Excessive greed and desire makes us unfortified. Too much knowledge leads to confusion and gives us an air of uncertainty as a mater of fact.

Of course the life lived in a village is relatively unexciting, but it is not very straining and nerve-racking.

Acquisition of knowledge may enlighten you and illumine your path to prosperity, widen your horizon, and social status. But you will lose your capacity for being happy, and this endorses the fact that ignorance is bliss oftentimes if not always.

crystalmoonshin
06-09-2009, 11:12 AM
Acquisition of knowledge may enlighten you and illumine your path to prosperity, widen your horizon, and social status. But you will lose your capacity for being happy, and this endorses the fact that ignorance is bliss oftentimes if not always.

This reminds me of Miguel de Unamuno's "San Manuel Bueno y Martir", about a village priest who does good deeds and suffers inside because he has lost his faith in the so-called life-after-death after having studied a lot. He preaches about the things which he himself has come to disbelieve and everyday, he fights the urge to commit suicide.

Maximilianus
06-10-2009, 12:28 AM
Good to see my friend moon talking about Spanish literature. ;)

Now to our topic: most ignorants I know seem to be leading more than happy lives, but when I look at them I immediately reject the possibility of joining their clan, because if I did I wouldn't even realize I am like that, this is, an ignorant. :sick:
At least it seems to me that they ignore they are what they are (well they are supposed to ignore if they are ignorants, right?), or even if they know it they actually seem to enjoy it. Not my case, since I can use a bliss for a little while but not for a lifetime.

Therefore, I go with the middle path concept too. :)
If we focus both eyes on a goal, there will be no eye available to find the way to achieve it, so one eye on the goal and the other on the path to achievement. That's to say, balance.

Ohmyscience
06-10-2009, 05:09 AM
What do you mean by bliss? What you're implying is not willful ignorance but that those who are ignorant are inherently so. It would be like comparing a child to an adult. I don't think being ignorant in that sense would make you happier only that your concerns are insular and immediate.

Maximilianus
06-11-2009, 05:05 PM
I don't really think the point of this thread is to compare a child to an adult. Of course a child ignores many things compared to an adult because children lack enough experience, only that not voluntarily. As we all know, they are in the first stages of learning and therefore it would be more than just unfair to treat them as ignorants.

I believe the point of this thread aims at people who willingly (apparently) have decided to part with knowledge, because they seem to have discovered that it's less preoccupying to live that way and maybe they are right.

The more you want to know, the more you discover you know too little, and that causes stress, which is the opposite to happiness.
Remember what Socrates said? All I know is that I know nothing?


I believe this to be the subject we're talking about here. The less we know, the less we discover our ignorance. Of course not everyone is willing to live like this. Ignorance by own will doesn't make everyone happy. Fortunately many of us still want to learn new things, but what we should try to do is to consume knowledge and not allow the will for knowledge to consume us, which is what ultimately will lead knowledge-eager people to unhappiness.

On the other hand if everyone wanted to be an ignorant just for the sake of less preoccupations, then what chance of evolution would our species have? What would be the purpose of such an empty existence? ;)

It's my interpretation of the purpose of this thread, I hope I didn't get it wrong. :)