Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind — Meditations
Today I will be presenting a quote by John Stuart Mill.
“It is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”
The best movie I have ever watched is called “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” this movie presents a concept similar to mills through a love story. These two people meet, and fall instantly in love. They live together and slowly their stellar relationship deteriorates, an abundance of love and attraction is slowly replaced by arguments, and petty disagreements.
At which point, the female protagonist called Clementine, undergoes a surgery in which her memory is erased. She seeks the eternal sunshine that she believes could be granted by a spotless mind. A blissful ignorance. Through erasing all the memories, both incredibly good, and painfully bad she resets her memory. Goes to a state of neutrality, returns to a place before finding this overwhelming passionate love, but also a place before the inevitable disagreements and arguments that emerge from any relationship. I have made my point so I won’t spoil this movie, a movie that I would urge anyone to watch.
And in stopping my explanation of the movie I am presenting another example, in which Hume’s quote is brought into question. By refraining to tell you the rest of this movie’s plot I am allowing you to watch the movie in a state of blissful ignorance. Through not knowing the fate of the protagonists you are able to be surprised, to experience the pleasure of being involved as the story folds out in front of you.
So when it comes to films, by being a fool as Mill so savagely put it, or simply being less knowledgeable, you are opening yourself up to great pleasure, the pleasure of surprise, the pleasure of discovering the unexpected, blissful ignorance.
I will return to the subject of movies in order to develop this point. I am a film maker; I have a basic understanding of the inner workings of the film making process. And therefore, with this greater understanding, my standards for film quality are heightened. A movie with a good plot and good acting which you may enjoy, I might dislike if the camera is a bit shaky for example, or if the shots are poorly cropped, thus my knowledge of the filmmaking process, has left me with a poverty of attention when the quality is noticeably poor. Through a greater knowledge I am able to find pleasure in fewer films then most people. So I wonder if mill is wrong, maybe it would be better to be blissfully ignorant, to be a satisfied fool.
Though I don’t think that it is this simple. We don’t simply quantify pleasure and determine a good life based on the calculated amount of overall pleasure we have experienced. Although I may enjoy fewer films as a result of my knowledge of film, the films that are truly good, the films that are consider masterpieces, these films have the power to evoke truly powerful feelings, I have an incredible appreciation for films that are perfect. And similarly, although Socrates may be dissatisfied with more things in life then a fool, truly wonderful examples of art, music, poetry and storytelling for example, would be appreciated in a more refined, and profound science by Socrates.
Going back to the movies love story, although their relationship had its inevitable disagreements and low moments, their increased understanding of each other, and their memories of experiences both good and bad, may have allowed them to appreciate the value of truly good moments, as they would have been able to compare them to other experiences, and seriously appreciate them, as I would do with truly good films, and Socrates may do with examples of art and music.
So, I leave you with this. Would you rather be a fool satisfied, or Socrates dissatisfied? If you had an experience that gave you both enormous joy, and misery, would you erase it all? If you were truly knowledgeable about something, would you erase all of your knowledge to return to a state of ignorance in order to appreciate the surprise of experiencing it all over again?
