What is ignorant happiness?
Without knowing the truth (truth is often complicated and less than beautiful), one is less bothered by the imperfect realities, one has less desire for more, or one can fabricate any fantasy to serve one's ends, hence easier to be happy. Just like most children.
Intelligence = counter-happiness?
For that reason, many people, for example Lisa Simpson, concluded that “As intelligence goes up, happiness goes down. See, I made a graph. I make lots of graphs.” [The Simpsons, episode 257]
When I had a chat with my boss as I suffered the "intermittent intellectual pain attack", he admitted that he could reckon. When I mentioned Noam Chomsky for some reason, he commented that "how painful the life must be for intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky and Bernard Russell". At that moment I could not help empathizing with their deep-to-marrow sort of pain - although today I would be wary of this kind of generalization.
Out of sheer intellectual curiosity, I interviewed quite a few people. It seems to me people are more or less confused. On one hand, it does appear that those who do not know as much look happier. But on the other hand, all that I talked to would choose to know more, if there is such an option. If happiness is what we are after as a major character for a "good" life, and knowing more seems to destroy happiness or at least reduce it, then why, oh why, we want to drive ourselves into a less "good" life?! Are we all masochists?! Oh, how can I pass on such an interesting dilemma without delving into it. So delve deep I did and hence this writing.
I will neither argue for, nor argue against that view point, because I think intelligence is not the very relevant variable here on this chart. Rather, wisdom should take its place. I am pretty confident that wisdom (if it can be measured properly) is a statistically significant factor, and the curve then will flip - flip around x axis or y axis still depends on my further research ;-) . Intelligence and wisdom sound like twins, but I do not think so.
So the motif of my thesis is : wisdom is bliss. Ignorance can be bliss, only when people are ignorant of their ignorance, which sometimes is indeed a blissful thing; wisdom, which differs from intelligence, leads to more mindful and sustainable happiness, and that requires skills to manage, hence I call it "skillful happiness". And anything in between could put one on a big swing : one day in heaven and the next in hell, and that is often completely at the mercy of the God.
Without knowing the truth (truth is often complicated and less than beautiful), one is less bothered by the imperfect realities, one has less desire for more, or one can fabricate any fantasy to serve one's ends, hence easier to be happy. Just like most children.
Intelligence = counter-happiness?
When I had a chat with my boss as I suffered the "intermittent intellectual pain attack", he admitted that he could reckon. When I mentioned Noam Chomsky for some reason, he commented that "how painful the life must be for intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky and Bernard Russell". At that moment I could not help empathizing with their deep-to-marrow sort of pain - although today I would be wary of this kind of generalization.
Out of sheer intellectual curiosity, I interviewed quite a few people. It seems to me people are more or less confused. On one hand, it does appear that those who do not know as much look happier. But on the other hand, all that I talked to would choose to know more, if there is such an option. If happiness is what we are after as a major character for a "good" life, and knowing more seems to destroy happiness or at least reduce it, then why, oh why, we want to drive ourselves into a less "good" life?! Are we all masochists?! Oh, how can I pass on such an interesting dilemma without delving into it. So delve deep I did and hence this writing.
I will neither argue for, nor argue against that view point, because I think intelligence is not the very relevant variable here on this chart. Rather, wisdom should take its place. I am pretty confident that wisdom (if it can be measured properly) is a statistically significant factor, and the curve then will flip - flip around x axis or y axis still depends on my further research ;-) . Intelligence and wisdom sound like twins, but I do not think so.
So the motif of my thesis is : wisdom is bliss. Ignorance can be bliss, only when people are ignorant of their ignorance, which sometimes is indeed a blissful thing; wisdom, which differs from intelligence, leads to more mindful and sustainable happiness, and that requires skills to manage, hence I call it "skillful happiness". And anything in between could put one on a big swing : one day in heaven and the next in hell, and that is often completely at the mercy of the God.
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