Credit, News, & Questions
Credit:
- Credit for this poster goes to FishKA13 of the Creators Faction.
News:
- Tower levels 143, 144, and 145 will be released alongside this event.
Questions:
- If people constantly recite the mantra that “knowledge is power”, why do you think it is that highly or absurdly intelligent people are generally less happy than those who aren’t so sharp, or those with average intellect? Do you believe the two concepts go hand in hand?
- Okay, so riddle me this (let’s call this a distorted form of a “subquestion”): if someone is happy and vigorous each waking moment of their life, then if “ignorance is bliss” holds true in daily life, does this euphoria imply that they lack insight? (Think: they’re constantly happy, so they must not be very sharp. Since “ignorance is bliss”, they must be ignorant. But is this truly implied by constant bliss? And how does this theory clash with the theory that “knowledge is power”, when the ones with compact brains are the ones who are always down in the dumps?)
- One more subquestion before we move on: would you rather be knowledgeable and gloomy or ignorant and blissful? Does mental capacity trump the ability to be happy?
- Which level will you be going to this event?
My answers:
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The barrier between interpretation and lack of interpretation is faint, but it’s there. Generally, it is true that with more knowledge comes more power, but it is equally true that with more knowledge comes more burden, and this is the dilemma that humans in modern society have to contend with in their quest to ingenuity. Knowledge is compatible with awareness—with perception—and I believe that this is wherein the burden lies; the less aware or perceptive we are to certain undesirable realities, the happier our lives turn out to be. With prodigious amounts of knowledge, there is more room for burden, more room for anxiety, and therefore less stability, less liberty, and less ways to cope with the outside world, whereas the ignorance in others obstructs all negativity from ever taking root in their minds, simply because they don’t know to be cautious of it. Both qualities have their upsides and downsides, though.
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Well, of course by process of elimination, if ignorance translates into a life of blissful paradise, surely that would mean that those with constant happiness show signs of ignorance, right? Perhaps that would be a plausible theory, but the human mind is a tricky maze to figure out. Can a person of insight hold any ounce of delight? Most people, myself included, would say that is possible. Did Einstein lead a joyful life from birth to death? That’s a question only he could answer, but I think it stands to reason to state that if the placeholder notion is that “ignorance is bliss”, then there is no room for the perceptive bunch to snivel at the feet of their intellect as they have everything it takes to stand tall and look it in the eyes. But knowledgeable people can fall to that level! Perhaps they’re truly sad, or perhaps they’re just very skilled at hiding their negative emotions to appear as they’re normally pictured. Following all of this logic, people who are always excessively happy are, at the very least, more likely to be ignorant than those who are either constantly despondent or are just very skilled at hiding whenever they are. But how does this theory of ignorance being bliss clash with the theory of knowledge being power? It’s simple; in life, we choose to either be ignorant and carefree (or blissful) or hold immense amounts of knowledge and reap the benefit of having power over our peers. Just as there is no ability to possess both knowledge and be ignorant, there is no ability to possess both ultimate power and unflagging pleasure. Therefore, the trade-off isn’t ignorance for knowledge nor knowledge for ignorance; it’s either pleasure for power or power for pleasure.
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Personally, I would rather be ignorant and blissful than knowledgeable and gloomy. My position is that one’s composure is much more important than one’s physical power, and I myself wouldn’t dare make such a trade. However, the concept of whether or not mental capacity trumps the ability or capacity to be happy depends entirely on the subject, the subject’s moral views, and what the subject’s preferred lifestyle is; for instance, one who wants to punish oneself may prefer a life of grand knowledge and deep desolation over a life of paltry wits and total joy.
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Given that I just rushed into Arcanum tier and am in what looks to be another hut-egg-related predicament (minus the Verdant eggs I have left over for this event that should provide me with some leeway), I have no set goal, but I will be ascending to level 530 at most (from a current status of 520).
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