填空题
A
Surely you have often heard (and maybe even said yourself) things like "it’s my/your brains that make me/you unhappy", "simple, uneducated people are the happiest", "I wish I was a moron like everyone else and didn’t think so much—I would be much happier", and many more variations. A lot of people, both intelligent and unintelligent, really seem to believe that. Which is sad, because, well, they are wrong. Intelligence and awareness can bring you a sense of right and wrong. That sense may cause you to notice many injustices in the world that you wouldn’t have seen otherwise. And that can surely bring you pain. But it can also help you to notice good things that you wouldn’t have seen without that awareness. Also, with it, maybe you can now make a difference. Still, many people do believe that "the less they see/know/think, the better they are". But is it so Are those stupid, ignorant, blind people really happy Have you looked at them They usually aren’t, really. Happiness is not the absence of sadness, happiness is joy. Happiness is not the absence of pain, it is pleasure. Happiness, as a concept, is not defined by what it isn’t, but by what it is.
B
Education systems in countries whose primary interest is in wealth accumulation encourage heroes in movies, war and sports, but not in intellectual development. Super intelligent people manage, but few reach the top of the business or social ladder. Children develop along four streams: intellectual, physical, emotional and social. In classrooms, the smartest kids tend to be left out of more activities by other children. They are "odd", they are the geeks, they are social outsiders. In other words, they do not develop socially as well as they may develop intellectually or even physically where opportunities may exist for more progress. Adults tend to believe that intelligent kids can deal with anything because they are intellectually superior. This inevitably includes situations where the intelligent kids have neither knowledge nor skills to support their experience. They go through the tough times alone. Adults don’t understand that they need help. Western society provides the ideal incubator for social misfits and those with emotional coping problems. When it comes to happiness, intelligent people who are socially inept and who have trouble coping emotionally with the urgent needs of life would not be among those you should expect to be happy.
C
Happiness has nothing to do with intelligence when intelligence is used as a point of reference for self. In other words, if intelligence is something by which you value or measure your worth, this will not bring you happiness. Happiness is a result of acceptance. Those who operate with greater mental constraints, for whatever reason, sometimes seem to have an easier time accepting their circumstances, their environment, and themselves, because they are not given to long-winded inner dialoguing and mental journeys into the various nuances of their perceived reality. And so a so-called simple-minded person can shrug his shoulder and carry on, accept what is, and that is what creates the avenue for the experience of happiness. People with less mental restrictions, having access to greater levels of intelligence, may spend so much time analyzing, dialoging, cataloging, and in general thinking about their environment and the different potentials, that they have difficulty simply accepting the perceived reality. They therefore do not have an avenue through which to experience happiness. Happiness is a function of acceptance.
D
As "giftedness" has a genetic component, smart parents have a good chance of having smart kids. Yet we have little reason to believe that unhappiness has a genetic component or that people with above average intelligence will necessarily be unhappy. More intelligent people are no more vulnerable to unhappiness naturally than anyone else. However, the circumstances of their lives may make it easier for them to adopt unhappiness as a way of life. When parents are asked what they want for their kids when they grow up, some will be specific about a profession or taking over the family business, both of which show a preference for developing the child intellectually. We tend to go with our strengths, so if we are strong in intellectual ability we will tend to follow that path, perhaps to the detriment of our other streams of development. Think of the four streams of development as the baselines for a pyramid which is the growing child. The interior of the pyramid would be the environment and support systems available to the child. If any one side of the pyramid takes strong precedence in growth over the others, the pyramid may not only not grow straight, it may collapse due to insufficient strength in its weaker sides. A person can have the same strengths and weaknesses. And the same potential for collapse.
D