Do you ever almost wish you were one of those many people who didn't think deeply?

[raccoon]

Sometimes I almost do. I don't really mean that. But I just got back from vacation and I realized how much I think about really heavy stuff. The Beatles said, "Don't carry the world on your shoulders," and I think that's what I do.

I'm really going to work on not thinking as much about heavy stuff. It's harmful to the one who is thinking, it, and just thinking about it doesn't help other people or society as a whole either.

[RB TexLa]

1. The ignorant might seem to enjoy bliss, but in the end they are just ignorant.

[crim son]

2. I've thought that,

and then I wonder if people who don't think deeply believe they do, i.e. am I one of them. Then I pour myself a glass of wine and watch music videos online. :P

I understand what you're saying, but i think we have what we have for a reason. Managing it without going nuts is the trick.

[mac56]

18. That's the best advice I've heard in a month.

"We have what we have for a reason. Managing it without going nuts is the trick."

Great. Thank you.

:pals:

[DaveJ]

3. I respect thinkers and dreamers

Although I know what you are talking about. So, to fit in, I don't think about things as much as I used to. Hard alcohol helps me with that, but I also try to keep my brain active with the technical work I do instead.

[KansDem]

23. "Hard alcohol helps me with that..."

With me, it's scotch and Chet Baker CDs. Then I start thinking about the woman I fell in love with 35 years ago.

Then I fall asleep.

[DaveJ]

28. I hope that's your wife

My wife and I are best friends, although it's only been 6 years. We're sort of like co-dependents but we try to be responsible.

I'm hoping that my social surroundings change soon, maybe I can meet others interested in similar things, so I can turn to the bottle a little less often.

[KansDem]

30. No... Just a woman I knew long ago.

She's been in the back of my mind ever since and only last year has moved into the front part...

[patrice]

4. Yes.

People like us need to build in regular breaks away from your own brain.

Prayer/Meditation (Chanting for me).

Action.

[tanyev]

5. It would have been a lot easier to take the blue pill, that's for sure.

[GoesTo11]

6. Never really thought about it.

I guess so.

Just kidding. Couldn't resist.

Really, though, I think there is a skill you can develop. A good mind shouldn't be a curse, but you shouldn't make it your burden. You can control what you choose to think about. Sometimes it doesn't do you good to think about something nasty that you can't in any way affect. For example, death from cancer can be horrible. But you are not a cancer researcher. So think about something else. Know that there is a time to take it easier -- you will not make the world a better place if you go to a movie and can't enjoy it because you are thinking about cancer. So make the choice. Much of the time you will still think deeply, because you are inclined to do it. But with control, you can spend less time thinking deeply about things where your deep though can actually be of help, and you can give your mind permission to rest and enjoy itself at other times.

There are surely books on this stuff. Read one and take it seriously. Taking a meditation class might be just as helfpul.

Happy trails!

[GoesTo11]

7. self delete

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

8. Yes I do wish that sometimes...

...too much thinking about world problems and the criminals who run things is not healthy -- not to suggest that it can or should be ignored.

You're right to try to limit the thinking on huge problems of the human condition. Working at the community level is a good antidote to it.

Good luck.

[patrice]

9. P.S. As I've gotten older more and more People around me have told me

how my "obsessions" with things like Religion, Nuclear War, Freedom, and Meaning/Literature have, though they all went through times when they wondered if I wasn't crazy, affected them and made them think about things more too.

I also taught highschool which, under the best of conditions, is a thoughtful dialogue with nascent thinkers. You'd be surprised how many teenagers actually enjoy ideas.

So, hange in there racoon and if you aren't too old or set on your place in the rat race, perhaps you could put your habit of thinking to use as a teacher. Highschools, in particular, need individuals, well-prepared in their content areas, who can model thinking skills for young adults who are in GREAT need of some examples of what thinking looks like.

[Echo In Light]

10. I'd disagree that it doesn't help people or society - that's the mantra of conspiracy deniers

...and yes, I do perceive a great deal of modern, corporate culture to be mired in various conspiracies, some overt, others mired within psychologic underpinnings and collective currents that corporate America knows how to steer and coerce to their advantage.

[madokie]

11. Oh yeah, I resemble that

madokie the worry wort, thats me

[zeos3]

12. I hear you

There are some people that can go on and on that way indefinitely. If it wears on you, try to find a hobby or take a break for a while. For all the work avoidance I did during my schooling, I've been making up for it by reading the (sometimes) driest books on economics and governmental policy. I never dreamed I'd be into any of this but I spend almost $100 every time I go to the bookstore and I'm online looking for more material and talking about it to my friends' dismay.

Every so often I take a break for a day or days or a week, it depends. I hang out, read the Enquirer, or just goof off, this recharges my batteries and keeps me from going insane.

[liberal N proud]

13. There are those who pay attention and ask why is this happening

Then there are those who are ignorant and wonder what happened.

The old ignorance is bliss tale only last until whatever you are ignorant to happens to you.

[rucky]

14. I've thought about it deeply enough

to know when it's best to be willfully ignorant about something.

[tom_paine]

15. Sure. The more evil the nation and times one lives in, the more one wishes ignorance.

Quite frankly, these are by far the most evil times in what was once the United States of America.

Oh, we have faced far more imminent physical danger, and the Civil War surely was a time of as great or greater peril for the future of the American Experiment, but never NEVER has evil authoritarianism and totalitarianism oozed from every pore. NEVER before has our nation lead the was BACKWARDS into darkness and pre-1776 legality.

In that regard, for thinkers, this is one of the most if not the most (I believe I have at least made a cogent argument as to why this may be so) evil times to be alive, and one of the worst time to be a critical thinker.

Having said all that, as tempting as it would be to revert to an ignorant sheep, I wouldn't trade my historical knowledge or my critical thinking skills, no matter how much bliss was on the table.

Why? If following murderous monsters like Hitler or Stalin gets a soul sent to hell in the afterlife (presupposing there is one), there is no question where the Bush Supporters, Dittoheads and Freepers are going. Right down to hell, hopefully to room on the same level with all the Good Germans, so there will be no mistake what they were in life and why they are where they are.

[sui generis]

16. observing deeply goes along with thinking deeply.

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be stupid, carefree and unfettered by raw genius and great male beauty, then I look around in some of the forums here and I KNOW, I just know that other people are better at it and should not be challenged.

It is my cross to bear. Supergeniousishness and, supernatural male beauty. Alas thus I carry on . . . alone, alone, alone.

:P

p.s., if I can't drive down the road, with the top down, and the wind blowing through my hair, then what's the point of having a head?

:shrug:

[BlooInBloo]

17. Read "Flowers for Algernon"?

[no_hypocrisy]

19. Never.

[NNN0LHI]

20. How can you change things without thinking about it?

The harm comes from not thinking about it.

Don

[Fuzz]

21. I've often said I'm just barely smart enough to realize how stupid I am.

It's not an enviable position to be in.

[MedleyMisty]

22. No

I like who I am.

But then my thoughts are not harmful to me. And I do think that it helps - for instance young impressionable people have told me that my blog posts about my thoughts made them think.

Plus if you give up on critical thinking and become a sheeple and deny reality, then you're a complicit "good German". I know that there's not all that much that we can do to stop the full tide of human evil, but I think that just being aware of it is worth something.

But then I read all the Holocaust books in the library when I was 9 and the philosophy of "Witness!" was burned into my soul. I feel a need to constantly confront the evil within myself so that it doesn't take over - so that I do not sit idly by ignoring atrocities. If I can't stop the sparrow from falling, I can at least watch it and note its existence and mourn its passing and tell other people so that maybe one day there will be enough of us to stop the sparrow's descent and save it.

Breaks are cool - I will zone out into WoW or Sims 2 for long stretches. But I come back to reality. I wouldn't want to permanently zone out.

But I am not you, and only you can know what is good and what works best for you.

[Javaman]

24. I've had to cut back. The stress was effecting me in very bad ways.

life is so very short and I didn't want to make it any shorter.

making oneself crazy over events that you may not have a voice in or able to exert any sort of control over will only lead to unwanted stress.

Be informed, be involved, but don't be stress.

In the end, the outcome will be what it will be.

[Jeroen]

25. Start thinking instead of worrying

There is nothing wrong with thinking, on the contrary.
But it is vital to make a distinction between thinking and worrying (thinking without a purpose)

There are few people on this earth who cannot relate to your problem.
We all ‘think deep’ and we all ‘carry the weight’ from time to time, each in our own manner.

[bean fidhleir]

26. As far as I can tell, most people already DO think less deeply. And their belief that they're deep

thinkers who have a handle on things is symptomatic of the shallowness of their thought. (Please understand that I'm speaking generally, not about you personally)

How in hell can ANYone claim to think deeply and not be frikking *OUTRAGED* by our plutocratic oligarchy? And yet the number of people who would really get off their asses and do anything about it if offered the opportunity is what? 10% maybe? 5%? I suspect a good metric might be the number who've chosen the bicycle as their primary within-town transportation. We're in a crisis that might end in our species's extinction, but people continue to behave as though there's nothing special happening. That doesn't indicate deep thinking, to me. Does it to you?

[Evoman]

27. I am one of those people who don't think too deeply.

Right now, I'm thinking about racoons eating an ice cream cone.

Hehe...eating ice cream with their little cute hands. Somebody should run for Pres with a ice cream eating raccoon for VP. I would totally vote for that person.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

29. Go cruise GD:P.

It's living proof that many here do NOT think deeply.

:shrug:

[slackmaster]

31. You mean like the ones who do what their TVs, party bosses, etc. tell them to do?

It would be a lot easier than having to think about things.

[KansDem]

32. Huh?