An old piece I wrote as a comment on a friend's blog.

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... my contention basically is that the concept of blissful ignorance should be looked into. True blissful ignorance is a litchil hard to find. Mostly its a fearful, escapist sort of ignorance: A refusal (the bull-headed kind) to ask a question if one has even the slightest inkling that one will not like the answer to that particular question. It is an in-your-face sort of defiance. ... it is the act of ascribing motives to this ignorance that helps us understand the ignorance...

The lack of intellectual conversation is an indicator of a deficiency: a deficiency of values, at that; almost, a lack of values. An unwillingness to pursue a truth...

The thinker cannot be an existensialist, though he/she/it can find some much needed rest in the concept. The thinker cannot think for too long if his value system replaces the pursuit of a truth with a pursuit of happiness. Existentialism is the Carribean for the under-used over-endowed 21st century man: Sunny beaches; bird-watching; and delicious drinks served with little blue umbrellas. (yes. Snatch.)
Existentialism is a vacation spot. It is a refusal to look for meaning. It is a I'm-basking-in-the-sun-.-Let-the-world-take-care-of-itself attitude that is perfectly acceptable as a state of mind, but is hardly worth having as a way of life. It is a burden if you try to carry it with you for more than 3 years :) Because it presupposes something which it shouldn't... That there is no truth. I'm not saying there IS a truth. I'm saying its flawed to assume that there is or isnt a truth. Neither approach is self-contradictory... But then, neither approach is... ummm... scientific.

Talking about brick walls; I had an interesting conversation today. The person I talked to, expressed a penchant for punching at brick walls. Note... I didnt say "love"... or "desire" or "morbid fascination"... I said "penchant". This wasnt about martyrdom... This was about purpose. The idea being to knock on everything. and check to see if it sounded solid or hollow. Every hollow is the sound of a wall that is hiding something.

And this is where that difference comes in; between people who are acting "blissfully ignorant" and those who are "comfortably numb"... The numb ones are hiding their own feelings... from the world... sometimes, even from themselves. The actors have walls to hide the world from their vision...
The truly ignorant ones are those who do not walls or barriers. the truly ignorant ones are the ones without the sensibility to make value judgements: the ones who eat in the mess, because they do not see food as having a value that can be qualitatively or quantitatively expressed.

Very few of us can afford that luxury. We know too much. I for one would be very ready to pass judgement on these people... All of them really; and not just the truly ignorant. almost all of them, are a waste of resources, really. They contribute nothing to broadening the boundaries of knowledge. Some of them, (Paulo Coelho, et al) even tend to tighten that circle of knowledge.

Here, I am presupposing the intrinsic existence of a value system; a UNIVERSAL value system that places knowledge above ignorance.

The flaw with "pursuit of happiness" is that it glorifes a chase. It is not a purpose... It is a path... I would have accepted "being happy" as a purpose. I would have accepted "maximization of instantaneous happiness" as a purpose. "Pursuit of happiness" is not a purpose. It is an excuse... and a very sorry one... because it has an inbuilt escape route. I pursue happiness, but dont find it... But thats okay because the purpose of life is "to PURSUE happiness"; not "to BE happy"...
That is unnacceptable because it is not a PURPOSE. It is not a goal.

The existentialist, for me, is the biggest sinner. :) Being comfortably numb is the biggest sin of them all. Even cynicism is a lesser evil, because it, at least, acknowledges a deficiency and is dissappointed with it.

Oh, and incidentally, it does not really matter to me if you have never read Aristotle or Kant. But it does really matter to me if you do not ever reach a point that Kant, Descartes or Leibniz reached in their search for meaning. It matters even more if you do not intend to do any thinking in that direction.

Because it matters to me that you are a person who eats, sleeps and fornicates, even if you do nothing else. You consume resources.... Resources that could have been used by someone who was operating at a higher level. A level that cares about knowledge and meaning.

I, for one, really care about one thing... Efficiency. And it is most efficient if we can do this over a good hot cup of coffee at GRT one of these nights :) The treat's on me, dude!