by Jae Baeli

Created on: December 02, 2008

Stupid & Happy vs. Smart & Troubled

Someone once asked me: given the opportunity to choose between: (a) being delusional and believing in an intangible, even illogical, philosophy that brings you much peace and bliss or (b) seeing the "reality" of things and cutting straight into the truthful heart of all there is, yet along with that comes despair and grief...Which would you choose? Would you rather be "stupid and happy" or "smart and troubled"?

As Shakespeare said, "Thou hast vexed me marvelous much." Questions like this tend to spiral me into the abyss of darkness and nail-biting. My addendum to this, (which seems to be more a preface, at the moment) reflects the objection I have to the suggested absolute that there must necessarily be despair and grief in this scenario. I feel there are few, if any, absolutes on this earth. (Except maybe that a Krispy Kreme Glazed donut is manna from heaven). Nevertheless, I shall endeavor to address the question with a sufficient amount of brain cellage.

One cannot know or appreciate joy without experiencing the depths of despair. Happiness via stupidity is an artificial happiness. In Desiderata, Max Ehrmann's advice was to "go placidy amid the noise and haste, and know what peace there may be in silence." Not, "go STUPIDLY amid the noise and haste and know what peace there may be in IDIOCY." Artificial happiness smacks of a big fat waste of energy and a sad frittering away of a lifetime meant for learning and evolution. Yet, ignorance prevails.

Examples of stupidity are all around us as evidenced by the aphorism, "I'm surrounded by idiots." We can see examples of it on warning labels, that both reveal the stupidity of the intended reader, as well as the stupidity of the person who wrote the warning.

"Caution: The contents of this bottle should not be fed to fish." (On a bottle of shampoo for dogs).

This warning is an obvious effort to prevent the death of innocent guppies, suggesting that someone, somewhere, poured dog shampoo in an aquarium. One hopes it wasn't at Sea WOrld.

In the case of, "Beware! To touch these wires is instant death. Anyone found doing so will be prosecuted" (On a sign at a railroad station)

-we see that whomever wrote the sign, didn't think it through. As humorous as warning labels can be, they reveal a disturbing truth about society and the people who swell its ranks: ignorance is a problem, and many of our greatest ills are rooted in it.

Thus, I'll take Reality with a Truthful Heart of All There Is glaze, and a side of Despair and Grief. Since nothing short of severe head trauma would render me ignorant, I am thus shackled/blessed with the task of creating the best result from the tools I have available to me. This, in spite of the fact that reality is not always a tangible thing. Many things are real, and yet simultaneously invisible, misconstrued or beyond comprehension. Refer to Plato's Allegory of the Cave, String Theory, Unified Field Theory, or even WIND for fine examples of this point.

Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." I agree.

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