My take away from reading Flowers For Algernon, a story about a magical drug that does exactly this being trialed on a severe mentally retarded person is that sometimes ignorance is bliss and intelligence does not equal happiness.
I’ll always remember a story my buddy told me in high school. His dad was a judge, and absolutely brilliant, and a major alcoholic. One time his dad sat him down and said ‘I think you’ll have a good life. Because you’re smart enough to do well in this world, but not smart enough to realize what a shithole it is.’
I really think that there is a point where if you’re smart enough, you have brain power to really pay attention to everything that goes on in the world. And paying attention to all of that can do serious harm to one’s psyche.
My take away from reading Flowers For Algernon, a story about a magical drug that does exactly this being trialed on a severe mentally retarded person is that sometimes ignorance is bliss and intelligence does not equal happiness.
I’ll always remember a story my buddy told me in high school. His dad was a judge, and absolutely brilliant, and a major alcoholic. One time his dad sat him down and said ‘I think you’ll have a good life. Because you’re smart enough to do well in this world, but not smart enough to realize what a shithole it is.’
I really think that there is a point where if you’re smart enough, you have brain power to really pay attention to everything that goes on in the world. And paying attention to all of that can do serious harm to one’s psyche.