Living In Fool’s Paradise

One of my favourite persons Fyodor Dostoevsky said a quote that has remained with me forever, and I admire him even more due to this quote. It said, “It is better to be unhappy and know the worst than to be happy in a fool’s paradise.”

And of course, most of us would know that, at least if we belong to those areas of people who can read between the lines. Now, let’s try and analyse this a bit. While writing this, a thought struck me that most of us are aware of reality, yet we choose to ignore it sometimes. We all are guilty of it, aren’t we now?

Let me cite my thoughts with the help of an example. Imagine going to a New Year’s or Xmas party with friends (since this is that time of the year now). Most of us are often well aware of the kinda people we are going to encounter, knowing fully well that our work is going to be affected if we drink too much, we still choose to go and drink, right?

We tend to fill our hearts with all kinds of aspirations that we are going to think positively, we aren’t going to be drinking that much, but all of that is an eyewash, wouldn’t you agree? These are the cases when we choose to be happy in a fool’s paradise knowing fully well that we have to pay the price in the long run, but who cares, right?

Or let’s say in the case of friendships and relationships. There are countless such times when we make ourselves available, sell ourselves short and think that all is going to fall in place, but does that actually happen ever?

Do things fall into place on their own? 90% of the time, no, you may luck out 10% of the time. No matter how much you try to coax yourself into believing that there lies something promising in the external beings, mostly you try and make a fool out of yourself. Well, again not talking of the lucky ones here, surely some good people do exist, but most of the time it is just the other way around. 

In most of these cases, we try convincing ourselves that no problem, let’s try things out, maybe they’ll work out this time, but they seldom do, right? So, you would notice that we choose to remain in a fool paradise, by choice and not by force? 

One of the possible reasons behind this could be because we are scared, scared of losing, scared of failing, and in order to avoid any kind of setback we don’t mind selling ourselves short. But, is that a viable way of living? Of course, there is no denying the fact that it is difficult to live with the truth, as it can get devastating, but even then we are living a life of truth and not any falsity associated with it. At least, we are not delusional. 

So, what is the problem in living an unhappy life when you are living with the truth? I personally believe there is no problem and none can and must be disappointed in living the truth. Whenever I go through an uncanny phase, I remind myself that this is just a phase and will pass soon. Also, I recognise and acknowledge that it didn’t kill me but made me stronger. 

Maybe this time and also in the upcoming times I will choose to live with the truth, and not in some fool’s paradise. That is a challenge that I am willing to take on voluntarily.

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