"Would you rather be ignorant and happy, or know everything and be bitter?" I think you're reading too far into it, because basically the
real question (in the spirit of things) is would you rather be happy or
bitter? Naturally this is asking about a perpetual state of being for
the sake of interpretive charity and in that event whatever happens to
be the cause (info or little info) actually cancels out. So their
response makes a lot more sense than yours does since you can't change
the nature of the question. You can't start learning things based on
your happiness to undo your ignorance and you can't use your exhaustive
knowledge to make yourself happy or else you undermine the spirit of
the question. For the record in this extreme case, I'd choose
ignorance, because per the question that equals the only path to
happiness. We can only assume it is actual happiness or else again the
terms are undermined. Granted, remember, this scale is off the charts
and virtually never applies to real living. All the in bounds
sensibilities you put forth that would change the terms obviously apply
otherwise and I would agree with you.
A truly diabolical
choice that no one should ever be asked to make would be, "Would you
willing suffer for all eternity if that meant everyone else lived in
paradise forever? They wouldn't know about you and you would have no
knowledge of your choice after you made it (and thus no solace)." Or
the second option would be, "If you could live in paradise forever
oblivious to the decision you'll make now, would you damn the entire
rest of the human race to an eternity of hell?" How could you possibly
accept your damnation? How could you possibly refuse paradise? If you
honor the spirit of the question, you would probably do the worst
possible thing imaginable to everyone and never know it.
I would rather be stupid and happy. If I am stupid, I would not know I was stupid. And, I would be happy. As for the second question. My gut instinct is to say that I would take the damnation so that my children could be happy. But in an effort to be honest I simply do not know if I could damn myself to misery and not have at least the comfort of knowing I helped my babies.
@ME_ondisplay - Honesty is the real kicker in the second scenario.
can I ask you a question. Is your name really ben?
@ME_ondisplay - It's "Benjamin," officially. Why do you ask?
@Agnostics_R_Us - I am nosey and weird, oh yeah and awkward.
@Agnostics_R_Us - I did not mean it like that. I have a friend that is around and his name is Kevin but he has a xanga name of ben. It was random and weird I am sorry.
@ME_ondisplay - Oh okay. I was just wondering why you asked.
The question describes a progression we all take to one degree or another. No matter how stupid or smart we are, there's always someone who's stupider or smarter somewhere. Trying to have an opinion about it almost always becomes a sweeping generalization. Personally I strive to know as much as I can and not be bitter about it, but that's changing the question. Really it depends on the kind of person you are as to your happiness level, some who appear quite bitter are actually quite happy about it. People who just bubble around happy about everything or nothing are a mystery to me, but I appreciate them.
Forgot to ask, are you downloading all these pics because you are about to reimage your PC?
@Da__Vinci - I agree with your sensibilities, but that middle ground (the real world) doesn't appear to be what the question was getting at. It didn't ask you how you'd feel if you knew everything or if you knew nothing. It told you hypothetically how you would be (actually bitter or actually happy) and asked you to respond to that (as I see it, anyway).
@Da__Vinci - What does "reimage your PC" mean? I'm uploading the pics purely for fun. If you don't like lolcats, lolLOST, or particularly care about what movies are coming out...fine by me. Are they cluttering up your inbox? haha
@Agnostics_R_Us - Reimage mean reload the software, refomat the hard drive. Some people put their photos online first so they wont loose them.
"I agree with your sensibilities, but that middle ground (the real world) doesn't appear to be what the question was getting at. It didn't ask you how you'd feel if you knew everything or if you knew nothing. It told you hypothetically how you would be (actually bitter or actually happy) and asked you to respond to that (as I see it, anyway)."
It is a bad question; it forces you to generalize. Where did you get this question?
@Da__Vinci - That's what I thought you meant. No, just wanted to share the love. I have the lolcats on RSS feeds so I look up new ones like every day.
@Da__Vinci - I got it from the link provided which goes to Eric's site and he got it from a game.
What's funny about this question is, while it portrays itself as choice of two extremes, it's something we all experience, and thus mundane. Who hasn't been offered the choice to rationalize or remain ignorant so as not to bother one's conscience, and who hasn't been faced with facing up to an injustice and taking a stand, even if it meant one's own misery? It's almost an archetypical question (whereas yours, while more poignant and thought-provoking, we are luckily unlikely to be asked).
And I think that our answer to that question isn't necessarily reflected in our actions and choices. While I can see the attraction of ignorant bliss, I have always chosen to attempt happiness while seeing vividly the misery of this world.
@mama_jess - Right, as it stands, its rather archetypal, but in reality I suppose it could represent that daily choice by choice progression in one direction or the other. And I agreed with Eric that if you did know everything and happened to be bitter from that, potentially you could use your knowledge to find happiness again. I just didn't think that was inbounds for what the question was getting at. I do also think there are times when it is appropriate to *not* educate yourself on something potentially unnecessarily emotionally damaging. I don't think we have an obligation to hurt ourselves, but of course this can go too far into negligence and end up hurting the equation of your life in some other way if in fact you did need to get the facts straight regardless of how much pain it might cause you in the short term. Naturally one should use "ignorance" sensibly and in moderation. Knowing when and how to apply this is a talent in life one must cultivate through trial and error. I don't think there's one blanket paradigm where we can say "knowledge is always good and ignorance is always bad." In my opinion, it's a careful mix of both (probably favoring knowledge) for the sake of healthy long term goals.
Comments (16)
I would rather be stupid and happy. If I am stupid, I would not know I was stupid. And, I would be happy. As for the second question. My gut instinct is to say that I would take the damnation so that my children could be happy. But in an effort to be honest I simply do not know if I could damn myself to misery and not have at least the comfort of knowing I helped my babies.
@ME_ondisplay - Honesty is the real kicker in the second scenario.
can I ask you a question. Is your name really ben?
@ME_ondisplay - It's "Benjamin," officially. Why do you ask?
@Agnostics_R_Us - I am nosey and weird, oh yeah and awkward.
@ME_ondisplay - k
@Agnostics_R_Us - I did not mean it like that. I have a friend that is around and his name is Kevin but he has a xanga name of ben. It was random and weird I am sorry.
@ME_ondisplay - Oh okay. I was just wondering why you asked.
The question describes a progression we all take to one degree or another. No matter how stupid or smart we are, there's always someone who's stupider or smarter somewhere. Trying to have an opinion about it almost always becomes a sweeping generalization. Personally I strive to know as much as I can and not be bitter about it, but that's changing the question. Really it depends on the kind of person you are as to your happiness level, some who appear quite bitter are actually quite happy about it. People who just bubble around happy about everything or nothing are a mystery to me, but I appreciate them.
Forgot to ask, are you downloading all these pics because you are about to reimage your PC?
@Da__Vinci - I agree with your sensibilities, but that middle ground (the real world) doesn't appear to be what the question was getting at. It didn't ask you how you'd feel if you knew everything or if you knew nothing. It told you hypothetically how you would be (actually bitter or actually happy) and asked you to respond to that (as I see it, anyway).
@Da__Vinci - What does "reimage your PC" mean? I'm uploading the pics purely for fun. If you don't like lolcats, lolLOST, or particularly care about what movies are coming out...fine by me. Are they cluttering up your inbox? haha
@Agnostics_R_Us - Reimage mean reload the software, refomat the hard drive. Some people put their photos online first so they wont loose them.
"I agree with your sensibilities, but that middle ground (the real world) doesn't appear to be what the question was getting at. It didn't ask you how you'd feel if you knew everything or if you knew nothing. It told you hypothetically how you would be (actually bitter or actually happy) and asked you to respond to that (as I see it, anyway)."
It is a bad question; it forces you to generalize. Where did you get this question?
@Da__Vinci - That's what I thought you meant. No, just wanted to share the love. I have the lolcats on RSS feeds so I look up new ones like every day.
@Da__Vinci - I got it from the link provided which goes to Eric's site and he got it from a game.
What's funny about this question is, while it portrays itself as choice of two extremes, it's something we all experience, and thus mundane. Who hasn't been offered the choice to rationalize or remain ignorant so as not to bother one's conscience, and who hasn't been faced with facing up to an injustice and taking a stand, even if it meant one's own misery? It's almost an archetypical question (whereas yours, while more poignant and thought-provoking, we are luckily unlikely to be asked).
And I think that our answer to that question isn't necessarily reflected in our actions and choices. While I can see the attraction of ignorant bliss, I have always chosen to attempt happiness while seeing vividly the misery of this world.
@mama_jess - Right, as it stands, its rather archetypal, but in reality I suppose it could represent that daily choice by choice progression in one direction or the other. And I agreed with Eric that if you did know everything and happened to be bitter from that, potentially you could use your knowledge to find happiness again. I just didn't think that was inbounds for what the question was getting at. I do also think there are times when it is appropriate to *not* educate yourself on something potentially unnecessarily emotionally damaging. I don't think we have an obligation to hurt ourselves, but of course this can go too far into negligence and end up hurting the equation of your life in some other way if in fact you did need to get the facts straight regardless of how much pain it might cause you in the short term. Naturally one should use "ignorance" sensibly and in moderation. Knowing when and how to apply this is a talent in life one must cultivate through trial and error. I don't think there's one blanket paradigm where we can say "knowledge is always good and ignorance is always bad." In my opinion, it's a careful mix of both (probably favoring knowledge) for the sake of healthy long term goals.