Do you think ignorant people tend to be happier (in their simple life, I mean) than those who seek truth?

No, I don’t. Ignorant people seem to be angry about a lot of ridiculous things.

Yes, I do. I know a lot of ignorant people (we don’t hang out much) and like @Dutchess_III said, they get angry and there’s a lot of drama, but I think a lot of them THRIVE on it unfortunately.

There are a few people I know that are ignorant and don’t even realize it, just PWT’s that don’t know any better due to lack of education or anyone teaching them any manners, or how to act. It’s sad.

“it is usually said that reality is terrible (meaning of life, who we are, etc.)”

To be happy requires accepting reality on its own terms, and then living in harmony with that. This means accepting that things and people inevitably change. Nothing stays the same; it all flows. Nothing exists in isolation, but everything influences everything else.

If you don’t accept these basic facts along with all of their implications, then reality is indeed terrible. You’ll pin your happiness on arranging your circumstances just so, or on this or that person, or on things working out a certain way in the future. And though things may indeed cooperate briefly, it all eventually flows away, leaving unhappiness in its wake. That’s what I consider ignorance: living in a way that ignores the fundamental facts of existence.

But there’s nothing fundamentally “terrible” about the nature of reality, or the nature of ourselves (which is really the same). To be wise (i.e. not ignorant) is just to live in a way that doesn’t pretend reality is other than the way it is, or hoping that the universe will make a special exception in our case. There’s plenty of room for happiness in a life like that.

A wise life is often quite a “simple” one, because it doesn’t involve a constant struggle against the flow of reality. And “success” is not such an elusive target either, since it doesn’t rely on a particular alignment of circumstances.

@thorninmud Spoken like a true Buddhist. In another fifty years, I may get there too.

And “success” is relative. If a person thinks they’re successful, then they are.

@Dutchess_III Agree completely. Some people around here think that having ten dogs and five dirty kids in a trailer is success, and to them it really is because it’s not living in a two room hovel with an abusive parent. It’s all relative.

Hmmm… I think it depends. Heres an example I think illustrates it well.
You have a boyfriend thats cheating on you.
The ignorant person has no idea, and is therefore happy.
The person who acts ignorant has a faint idea, but feigns happyness.
The person who ‘searches for truth’ as you put it, finds out the boyfriend is cheating on them, and is unhappy short term, but happy longterm.

But it varies. I Agree completely that success is relative, we all have different goals in life after all :)

Welcome to Fluther @malle_balle

I used to think this to be true but I know now that ignorance is different from intelligence, often it comes from circumstances and lack of opportunity. As for intellectual gifts hey Rain man was a savant mathematically but not worldly.
I know a lot of people who would be considered ignorant of facts or information but they are not necessarily stupid or buffoons who wallow in their bliss.
Personably I think the supposition they are happy with their lot is misguided. I agree with what @thorninmud had to say.

I defnitely think there’s truth in the old saw, “Ignorance is Bliss.” For example, if you don’t know that your job is in jeopardy, that you were terminally ill or that your mate is having an affair, you might not be worrying about any of those things and feel successful in your job, your health and your marriage. I’m not saying that kind of “bliss” is necessarily a good thing—in fact, in all three examples, it’s really not good not knowing the truth. But there is something to be said for not worrying about some things until you have to.

I tend to agree with @malle_balle. (Welcome to Fluther, by the way!)

I don’t think ignorance or truth-seeking alone necessarily reflect on how happy one is, but rather what one is happy/unhappy about. It’s six of one/half dozen of another, and in the end the amount of happiness is probably just about even. And in that same vein, those who are happy “seeking truth” would not be happy being ignorant, and those who are happy with ignorance would not be happy if they were truth-seekers.

It’s hard to answer this, since the term ignorant is generalized.

I would appreciate some clarity around what ‘ignorant’ means to the original poster. Do they mean a person is unaware of information about something that may affect them or that they are uneducated generally?

The question seems to focus on both possible meanings. It talks about finding happiness by seeking truth but then goes on to make this claim “I don’t know why ignorant people think they are successful. Maybe they’re too dumb to know what success is.”

Not only is “ignorance” subjective, at least in this sense, but so is “success.” Who are you to decide what true success is?

Yes I believe so. Ignorance is bliss. People can be stuck in their own views and against many others and still live very easy going lifestyles.

@KNOWITALL What are PWTs?

I got modded. I am traumatized. Got rum?

@Plucky Poor white trash, I believe.

Truly ignorant types suffer a lot because they do not understand the nature of things as @thorninmud explains. Ignorance is ego that insists life ( reality ) MUST be a certain way to experience happiness or satisfaction and the elusive “success” as it is measured by most.
Ignorance is far from blissful, it is responsible for a lot of suffering that can be greatly modified when understood.

Ignorant people believe everything matters, truth seekers know nothing matters. ;-)

I was going to say yes, then I read @Dutchess_III s’ answer and I realized she was right (Again).

Ignorant people are usually an angry, irritable, bunch. It is the simple minded and the wizened who are happy.

@Dutchess_III So, should we just call you “Flame Bait” from now on?

I’m not gonna touch this one even with a 10’ pole!!!

I guess so! I don’t even know who I flame baited or how what I said could be construed as that. :(

@livelaughlove21 Ding ding, you got it. I don’t like the term, but it describes the situations with quicker accuracy.

Ignorant individuals are usually the ones who are unable to appreciate silence, for the war that is continually engaged in the world has nothing to do with people, it has more to do with the conflict within man. They are easily prisoners to their own mind, indulge in useless patterns and play the victim card when they caught by someone who knows better. So to respond to your question no, because the common question they ask themselves is why and a life that is not examined using the depths of your soul to find life’s true purpose is a man wandering aimlessly finding himself indulging in pleasures that take the life out of him day by day. Irony is, some of us fear of dying, but doesn’t it hold true that someone out there is quite frankly dying slowly immorally.