Poor and wise. Cause then I am smart enough to work and get rich.

I'd be poor and wise, because it sounds better. But in reality, they don't have to be a constant relationship, if the wise man is takes advantage of his wisdom to get paid. Is wisdom enough comfort?

Of course there is the rare case of the inheritor of a huge estate. But the rich guy probably got his wealth from smarts, or shrewdness, unless he was unscrupulous, in which case, he'd be smart, but not wise. And is having a humane attitude a part of wisdom, I mean could you be humane, and dumb? Wisdom is a complex attribute.

To refine the question, I would say that I am asking whether you would rather have an entire lifetime of poverty and wisdom, or an entire lifetime of ignorant bliss. The assumption being that you must choose between the two. To pick poor and wise -- because you want to be rich would essentially -- would be a vote for rich and ignorant under this premise.

I think both of you have interpreted this as a "dynamic" question, but I'm trying to phrase it in a sort of "static" way. After all, most people who are poor, stay poor. While rich people quite often stay rich.

Which should we esteem more: wisdom or power?

I will always be poor and wise because I lack the desire to immerse myself in the shallow customs of the ignorant. Not that I am incapable of being rich, but I AM incapable of tolerating the ignorance taught and enforced by those at the top of the totem pole.

Besides, any wise man will tell you that true happiness does not physically exist, it is LEARNED through the BAD things that happen to you. There is a different kind of happiness in poverty, it's all in the way you interpret the occurences in your life.

To answer the second question, my obvious answer is to esteem wisdom, though this is impossible for the greater population to grasp. The greater population will ALWAYS be ignorant by choice as they have ALWAYS been, and the powerful will always be fueled by the natural shallowness of man. Aside from the fact that the greater population is ignorant by choice, the truly wise have a natural inclination to avoid the greater population, as illustrated in the second sentence of this stream of ranting.

Questions or comments? e-mail ppeerryy@aol.com. Thank you for being kind enough to read the ranting of this lunatic.

I pick being wise and poor, because wiser ppl will live regally in the hereafter, when you are wiser, patient and abstemious, you can experience true happiness, while ignorant worshippers of vain desires will lead themselves to misery in both lives eventually

Here's an excellent article on how consumerism is bartering true human happiness for fleeting, temporary highs...

muslimedia.com

Allright E-Nord,

Let me give what I feel is the first truly honest answer on this post. Gimme the money, man! I will explain myself by breaking down this question into more specific questions.

First let's imagine that we (and by that I mean me, you, nobu, & damien) are at a club, having a few cocktails and the following questions come up:

What would you rather drive, a bentley or a hyundai?

Where would you rather live, in a studio right next to the expressway or in a mansion on the beach or high up in the hills?

Where would you rather dine if you wanted beef for dinner, McDonalds or the finest steakhouse in town?

Would you rather do your own laundry, clean your own house, and scrub your own tubs and toilets or would you rather have a maid to do it for you?

I personally would answer in the latter in each case. Give me luxury. The point I am trying to make is that it's much easier to be noble (and henceforth choose poor and wise) when you are talking about the concept in general with people who are home, alone, thinking about the fabric that comprises their soul. However, I think you get real honesty in the scenario I just described at the club, when you have a little truth(i.e. alcohol) flowing through your veins and you give instinctual responses to the questions I posed.

Yeah, I'm a fucker, but at least if I had my way I'd be living the way we all do deep down inside.

I think people want to be poor and wise, because they don't believe that they will ever be rich. We convince ourselves that that is how we want to be because we are afraid of the truth. We will be no richer, maybe even poorer than our parents. Our kids will probably be the same. I'm with E-Nord, give me the money and maybe one of you wise ass fuckers will teach me how to keep it.(LOL)
Love Yall

I think the only allowable pre-condition for a trully compassionate/humane/good person being rich is that your wealth ain't dependent on someone else's poverty.

But then, like Eric poses the question, the rich may be superficialy 'aware' that the poverty exists, but how aware are people of the extent the shit-stem kinda equilibriates itself out so that you probably never will become aware enough to think you can do anything about these things - everyone's been schooled into thinking that schooling is a good idea, or they're all waiting for someone to make a movie about all the problems that will somehow tell the people who 'hold the strings' how to make it right. But then, like, what you're asking here at some level Eric when you say "ignorant and rich", is pretty much axiomatic, right?

But what can I say, I can only go from my own experience so, relatively, on the world scale, I'm one of the rich who's also ignorant and therefore also pretty happy where he stands. I just like to think I'm a little less ignorant than some of the other people...

i wud like to be "rich n stupid"...cuz stupid is like nothinG when he got riches...i can keep a personal assistant,i can hire as much wise people as i want...

rich b/c i could get what ever i want when i want an no1 could stop me

Stupid and rich then I could I could buy the poor and wise people and they could think for me.