Thoughts On Things

Entry 8

At what point should we sacrifice honesty for kindness? Should there ever be such a point? 

Let's say you were asked, "Isn't he cute?" With he being the person's newborn son. I think most people would affirm the view that he's cute regardless of their opinion. I think they'd do so even if they hadn't seen the child in question, for it is considered the kindest option to most and the path to avoid any conflict. But let's say the child wasn't, in your mind, cute. Do you still continue on and state that it's cute, however false that may be? Do we sacrifice our honesty and our ideals for the sake of another's fleeting happiness and to avoid a small bit of conflict? I think most people would say yes, for conflict is, primarily, to be avoided in most cases for most people. 

I recently read a paper; Famine, Affluence, and Morality by Peter Singer. It was a good read and made me donate to charity. One key point of the paper is that we should donate everything, only stopping when donating further would cause a moral loss on the same level of that we are trying to prevent. In other words, donate until you can't donate more without sacrificing something equivalent in value to what you are donating to protect. A very harsh and tough view to accept, having been raised in this society with the moral view that charity is charity, not duty. Yet one that I can't refute. Anyway, the relevance to my previous paragraph is this: should we be honest until being honest would cause unhappiness that is greater than the unhappiness caused by lying? Poorly worded and possibly not what I'm trying to convey, but I hope it gets the point across nonetheless. 

I'd strongly recommend everyone to read the paper. The version I found was less than 20 pages long (I'm unsure as to whether this was the full version) and it managed to convey its message, or what I conceive its message to be, very well. I'd also recommend everyone to think about it, about everything they consume, for accepting everything you learn as truth is a road to ignorance that you believe is knowledge. Critical thinking is very important. Though saying that, I do have a tendency to quickly adopt any views, a tendency I am trying to correct. As they say, a hypocrite is often a man in the middle of changing his mind. 

I'm just reading something called The Book of Disquiet. It's a confusing book, as most books are, for me, but some of it I can relate to. In particular, this passage I've just read; "Ah, but then I only suffer more, because giving value to one's own suffering gilds it with the golden sun of pride." My interpretation, if it can be called as such, is that it's a sort of cycle of negativity within one's mind. You suffer, then almost raise the suffering high in the air on a pedestal, taking pride in how much of it there is. Then, realizing your shameful pride, you suffer more and it happens again and again and again. The next part too, is incredible; "Great suffering can give us the illusion of being Pain's Chosen One." Sometimes, when I suffer even slightly, I have a tendency to greatly exaggerate that suffering within my mind, deeming it to be the greatest suffering ever experienced by man. This, of course, leads back to the cycle. I'm sure there's a variety of ways to break this cycle. What if one just embraced the suffering, let the pride grow, never letting rationality back into one's mind. Or, be happy, I suppose.

"Everything wearies me, even those things that don't." From the same book. Half the author's thoughts fly over my head, which makes sense, as I am not him. The other half strike me as my own thoughts, conveyed clearly, better than I can express them myself. For those interested in the book, the version I am reading is the version translated by Margaret Jill Costa.

An interesting point that has long been stuck in my thoughts has come back, do I seek happiness? I don't think it would be hard for me to be happy. My life is blessed with wealth, health and enough intelligence to, at the very least, get by in life. I could indulge in many pleasures and surround myself with so much stimulation I forget the sadness and the emptiness. And yet, I choose to stay with the sadness, with my own mind, in a silent room, saying to myself, complaining, why am I not happy? Do I seek happiness, wisdom, or both or neither? Do I seek anything, or do I seek something to seek? I know nothing of suffering and yet still pursue it, telling myself I am running away from it. Do I seek to be happy? Or do I merely say I do, so that I can continue to rest half-well under the duvet of melancholy, never having to change anything, to face something new? Is my mind open to ideas? Or do I merely say it is, so that it can remain happily closed, content with lacking knowledge and with sad views? What a headache I have now.

Good night.