Knowledge. We all know something but the word knowledge means something different to each and every of us. What is knowledge anyway? Some people say it means power, some people say it means wisdom, some others say it means being unhappy.
In one of his poems, “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College” Thomas Gray said: “Ignorance is bliss.” This quote states that if you are not aware that a problem exists, you will not be worrying about it.
I personally don’t think knowledge and happiness are directly or inversely proportional. To a certain level, knowledge can increase the pleasure that you are getting from life. But when your level of knowledge is going up, at some point your happiness will peak and you will start getting unhappier and unhappier each day.
Eventually, we are all on this planet and we have to spend our 70 years in one way or another so we need to learn something. In the end, it is all about what you learn and how you use that information. Knowledge might make you understand the world more, maybe understand yourself more. On the other hand, it might force you to learn about truths that are not very nice and be aware of the dark side of the world.
For example, a simple history knowledge might increase your love of country and wake some national feelings inside you. But every country has something dark in its past, so the more you do research and learn, the more you will be concerned about the future of your country or maybe some mistakes your ancestors made in the past.
Also, some global issues such as poverty, pollution, migration issues, climate change, etc. can be examples. Even though they concern everybody who lives on this planet, some people are not aware of them. And they are happier.
But is it all about being happy or unhappy? Maybe we should be able to sacrifice a little happiness in our lives to be aware of problems and solve them. Because if you are not aware of a problem, you wouldn’t think about that and if all of us chose being happy over being aware, who will think about these issues and their solutions? Are we just stop learning and thinking and exploring to be happier? Don’t we think about global issues even though they don’t directly affect us?
My point is: yes, knowledge makes you unhappier but if we choose a little bit unhappier, we can help the next generations to be happy.