Hello again. I’ve been thinking about a ‘panacea’ for human beings – whether it actually exists or not. I do not know why, but I have a very strong belief in this adage: Ignorance is bliss. Maybe I’m terribly wrong, but according to me all other living beings are extremely happy in their lives; they are blissfully unaware of their lives being in constant danger (usually from us). So, thinking on the same lines, I realized that the primary thing that separates us very-often-miserable humans from the happy-and-contented animals might be our ‘Superior Intellect’.
So, in my quest for the elusive cure-all, I had stumbled upon the exact opposite of that: the root cause of all the miseries for us humans. Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present the culprit: “Numbers”. Yes, the seemingly innocuous counting units that we have learnt and mastered. Counting, according to me, is that which separates us humans from other animals (I am also aware that research shows that certain primates do have a sense of counting but I believe that is acquired rather that innate).
Good or bad, we are obsessed with numbers; we want to measure everything we see and discover. Also, numbers are the basic units of comparison which, in turn, is the first step in ascertaining the inferiority/superiority of an object. Undeniably, we crave for ‘better’ numbers in all the material things in this world, like better bank balances, better grades in schools, better clock-speeds in processors, better values of HDL Cholesterol and so on. This has ensured one thing: No one can have the ‘best’ because there is always a better number than you have. Materialistically speaking, this means that no one can be absolutely happy.
I have also realized that the things that give us true happiness are the things that cannot be counted: Love, pleasure and even happiness itself. This means that these things cannot be compared and hence everyone can equally be absolutely happy without the need for comparing who is more/less happy. That is why I think animals are innately happy; they do not compare among themselves who is better and who is not, and in fact, they cannot because all are equally happy. Thus, ignorance is bliss.
Take care,
Ravi Teja R.
11 comments:
I have also realized that the things that give us true happiness are the things that cannot be counted: Love, pleasure and even happiness itself.
Hmmm. Pleasure can't be counted, yes, but surely it can be measured?
Let's say that there are two things which gives a particular person pleasure. There's always the chance that the person finds one thing more pleasurable than the other, but wouldn't mind the other either. Doesn't that mean pleasure can be graded?
Real pleasure cannot be graded/measured; Materialistic pleasure can be.
Real pleasure...?
Real pleaasures are those that cannot be quantified; like seeing a baby walk for the first time...
Materialistic pleasures like?
Ah. And here I was thinking that pleasure in itself is materialistic. I can't believe I never though about pleasure from this angle.
sandeep - logging onto statcounter and feeling happy that your blog just received 500 hits in total is materialistic pleasure... see, even I am a victim of numbers...
lol ok
Actually, animals have been documented to have a social order too..bees and ants for example. Even a pride of lions. I doubt that the ousted alpha (now beta?) male of the pride would be feeling content and happy. Nobody ever questioned the poor worker ant about how it feels contributing to the 'big picture'.
Maybe that's the thing. Humans are actively individualistic, and hence there is always the issue of 'being better than'. Sure, it affects some people more than others, but very few people (I assume) actively think that their life is miserable. Hell, every time I think that (which is a lot), I just tell myself that it could have been a lot worse.
Oh, and the actual cause for all misery in humans is jock itch (and George Bush)
Gee, i should have known about those two...
When in the deep forests we were instructed not to use or think in numbers. At first it seemed to make saving the ecosystems from logging 'scientifically' impossible. In fact it not only showed us what we were saving but put us in tough with the supersenses superceded by such linear projections.
However - many species of animals can count, while some - such as chickens - cannot.
Thanks for your raising these issues amid the plethora of blah out there.
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