Is it better to be knowledgeable about the world--thus embittered and angered about all the corruption about it, frustrated by your inability to change it--or to be blissfully ignorant of the world around you--thus under the illusion that life is perfect and always happy?
I've thought about this since I was a child and still cannot decide.
A source of my unhappiness is that I can't stop thinking, or at least rarely do. I've had a few friends who I've discussed this with and we've all noticed that in some sense ignorant people tend to be "happier".
The thing is, I think about the times when I'm not thinking. Usually it's when I'm doing something on auto pilot and there is nothing else to fill my brain. These times when I'm not thinking really scare the hell out of me. First cause it's a different sense of being than I normally have, second because it makes me wonder about the people who seem to always be on automatic pilot.
To sort of bring back to what your talking about. My inability to change a world of corruption does frustrate me. It reminds me of a skit that comedian Bill Hicks used to do concerning the two political parties, where he had one hand talking to the other hand, but both run by the same operator. With a lot of Hicks comedy he was trying to change people's minds, and in the course of his routines you could sometimes hear him growing more and more frustrated. Some times to the point where it was disheartening as a listener to hear someone trying to make an audience listen and the audience is a brick wall.
But as someone who sees corruption, some times I think that?s all you can do, talk to brick walls. It may be frustrating and disheartening, but at least it?s a venting mechanism.
As for happiness, I think people destroy far too much in the pursuit of their own personal happiness. I think happiness is a fleeting thing and wouldn?t be special if it wasn?t. I flip back and forth between what?s better, being ?aware? or being ?happy?, but in the end it doesn?t matter because I?m the way I am. I?ll have to take what comfort I can from that.
-------------------------
It?s off topic, but you asked what we thought of the new signature. I don?t have the context of the quote, so I may be misinterpreting it.
My question is, what political creedo doesn?t involve endless work for the price of luxury? That is the price of luxury to a certain extent, though I know(personally and otherwise) people who don?t work anymore and live in what I would call luxury. I also know people on the opposite end who are greedy and don?t work and live in shite. I personally just want to live well and at a certain point stop working, like my grandparents did and my grandparents before them.
Also, what political programme is based on ?bottomless dissatisfaction and the impossibility of happiness.?? Cause I can?t remember that party on the ticket when I voted, and believe me, I was in such a bad mood when I looked at my choices, that I probably would have voted right down the BDAIH party lines just out of spite.
Finally, ?elevation of greed? is a human vice and It happens everywhere despite social standing, politics, education, locality, etc. etc. etc. And again I don?t remember seeing the party that espoused this on my ticket. I remember seeing some candidates who espoused this, but they belonged to a few different parties.
[This message has been edited by hermes (edited 04-02-2002).]
