why is stupidity mandatory for happiness?

Question

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To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.
Gustave Flaubert

Answer 1

This is a lighter and somewhat ironical humorous way to say this. This cannot be right, everyone things at first then at a second level of understanding one realised that this in fact is very right. It is a relief at last. It is nice to know, for example, that someone has stood up for silliness, stupidity and sheer lack of intelligent – lets admit it that we cannot completely get rid of all these things, as at times they are us.

Is stupidity mandatory for happiness? May be not exactly but it is known to help, it is known to prolong moments of happiness, it tends to let good feeling about almost anything go real deep into the mind.

Whenever for example, I find a moments of happiness my mind at the same time tends to think of bad times, then I feel angry why I have wasted all those days living in needless trouble and pain, I seek reasons and explore causes for that, why did that ideas did not come to me before for example, or why this did not happen then. Thoughts like this can robe us of our happiness, and often we fail to celebrate the moments in the shadows of thoughts of the times bygone. Then I need to tell myself that the winner takes it all, for the sake of good times forget bad times, and just imagine or even pretend that nothing bad happened before, be ignorant and be happy,

The fact is that too much of intelligence can make us very unhappy, or a mind that is subjective to immaculate ideals in life cannot be content with anything, it always searches for perfection that is nowhere to be found.

Then too much of thinking, even when thoughts are perfectly logical, can spoil the best moments of happiness that we earn and that we have full right to enjoy. Our deeply intelligent thoughts are often capable of incising into the reality of all things enjoyable, and therefore fatal for pure state of happiness in simple things of life.

Next time you fid yourself happy try not doing anything intelligent, like thinking … do you deserve to be happy, for instance?

Answer 2

Yes, I absolutely disagree, stupidty/ignorance does not equal happiness or bliss.

While it may seem sometime that ignorance is bliss, none of the people I know who live this type of life style are genuinely happy. They just ignore their problems... and so the problems keep coming. And that takes a lot of effort & energy actually, to keep ignoring problems.

What's really a problem with this philosophy is that, while you might be able to get by OK by ignoring problems, many other people can't. So when your loved ones run into problems, you're stuck in heaven while your loved ones are stuck in hell, and you're powerless to do anything about it. All the advice you can give is, "Ignore it," "Don't think about it," "It'll pass," "It's no big deal," "Just look at the bright side," etc. which almost never works of course, to most ppl who've received that kind of advice.

So I believe it's better to become wiser and less ignorant, not only for yourself, but also for your loved ones, so that when the ones you love run into trouble, you can at least help by coming up with solutions - which you can't do if you're blissfully ignorant.

Answer 3

I do english literature and I brushed paths with this big question as well. Take Hamlet, he is the opposite pole of stupidity and wallows in depression until it finally kills him; I think supreme intelligence makes one analyse and philosophise things a lot, preventing him from enjoying things with spontaneity. I suppose this explains how much more happier we are as children- because of ignorance, which is a lesser form of stupidity.

But the bigger message from that quote is that the average human being is incapable of being fully happy.

Answer 4

The label stupidity is a judgment we place on people we disagree with. No more, no less.

It has nothing to do with happiness or anything else beyond the confusion of the one applying the label.

Love and blessings Don

Answer 5

By being intelligent, one subjects themselves to the understanding of true human nature, the wrongs in the world, and the realization of things that "dumber" people cannot understand. People who are not as smart, so to speak, do not wallow in the wrongs of the world. They do not tend to over analyze and over think to the point of despair. This is not true for everyone (nothing is true for EVERYONE) but for the majority, people who are not as smart tend to not have the preoccupations that more intelligent people have.

Answer 6

To ignore Flaubert
and answer your question...
it is not that stupidity is mandatory, it is control of the mind and senses that allows happiness to exist .... otherwise they overtake the consciousness and ruin happiness and bliss which is normal

Answer 7

I don't think it is. Anyone who is truly happy wouldn't feel the need for 'stupidity', which, unless there is a medical reason for it, is probably attention seeking, or someone deeply unhappy and could be a cry for help.

Answer 8

No idea why some1 who acts stupid and makes people laugh and causes no harm is considered unhappy, like a previous answerer said, what a dumbass response. We are all different and different things make us happy

Answer 9

Malena, sometimes ignorance is bliss. I remember one time talking with a friend and mentioned I was terrified of Alzheimers disease. She said, "Well, you'd never really know you had it, so there would be no reason to be upset". Never really thought about it that way.

Answer 10

Some people can't live without doing stupid things. I guess if that makes them happy, then go for it. lol