The capital "A" Absurd

I've been reading lots about existentialism and absurdism as the response to it... the ideology really resonates with me. But I also have been reading about Emil Cioran's rejection of philosophy, religion, and general searches for fulfillment as intellectual dishonesty and rejection of the plain truth of meaninglessness. Should we strive for an unblinking look at reality if we aren't able to be content with it? Is blissful ignorance, or "philosophical suicide" in choosing to find meaning in an absurd world better? Is it even possible to live completely honestly with how life is finite? Should I just go lay in the grass for a while and think about simpler things?

Just wanted to purge some thoughts that have been stewing around my brain lately. I leave you with a quote that keeps me stewing. 

“Better to be an animal than a man, an insect than an animal, a plant than an insect, and so on. Salvation? Whatever diminishes the kingdom of consciousness and compromises its supremacy.”

-Emil Cioran, The Trouble with Being Born