Where to start is my biggest problem this week.
So, I’ll go back in time to recall a conversation I had in the early 1980s, when I was a fledgling musical director of the leading summer show, Caesar’s Palace, in Jersey. (Old Jersey, not New Jersey.) Visiting the show one night was a then very famous English comedy writer and actor of stage, radio, television and film, Jimmy Edwards.
He gave me some advice. “Never over-estimate the intelligence of your audience; most of them will be quite stupid.” I never forgot that conversation, and ever since, I have concluded that we are indeed surrounded by more stupidity than any of us realise. Just look at America, but not here; I’m sure Dean will have a few words to say on that matter.
So, why are so many people stupid? The answer, surely, lies in the fact that we all, and I mean every single person that ever lived on this planet, were born completely and utterly stupid. Wholly and totally helpless, and possessing not an ounce of knowledge or intelligence. Another words, stupid x 100.
Think about it. A baby giraffe can stand within an hour of birth, and can even potentially flee predators on its first day of life. A human infant can’t even hold up its own head. It won’t walk for at least nine months, often longer. Yes, their eyes might be big and bright and their heads might well be a handsome or beautiful shape. But inside that head—a rip-roaring void.
Luckily, some of us lose most of our stupidity, ever so slowly, as we begin to learn stuff and acquire information. But many keep enough of their stupid genes to afflict the world with their bullshit. Someone once said: “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realise half of them are much stupider than that”. I couldn’t put it much better.
Many people blame the internet. Not me, though. I see the internet as a kind of multiplier. If you’re intelligent, the internet can supply you with more knowledge. If you’re stupid, the internet will make you ever dumber and more gullible, until you are dragged into the abyss.
Which is where far, far too many of us are at this time.
Stupid!
When Dean suggested Stupid! for this week’s blog topic during our regular Wednesday video call, I immediately thought: that’s a killer!
The word is full of meanings; it is multidimensional and universal. It is as sharp as a blade.
So what is stupid!?
I believe hiring a black man before a white man just because of the colour of his skin and not considering actual skills is a vicious advantage, and it is stupid!
I think invading a sister country is stupid! Well, invading a sister country and being unable to win the war that you started is twice as stupid!
Driving like an asshole, upsetting other drivers, is stupid! Some people in Russia still practice this driving style, though the number of idiots is obviously decreasing. It is probably because some of these idiots have already made their one-way trip to the cemetery.
Drinking too much is stupid! Even if it happens very rarely. Trust me.
Being arrogant is stupid! I hate arrogance and arrogant people. I think I have even writtten a blog in RUSUK, mentioning qualities I hate.
But you know what? Somebody can read this article and say, well, it is stupid!
Stupid!
In the US, there seems to be an admiration for lack of having even the smallest clue. A few years ago, we listened to people who had Doctorates in this or that and they were the experts. Today anyone with a worm in his brain is perfectly qualified to pass judgement on, for example, vaccines. Have you ever seen a YouTube video? You are now qualified to perform surgery or design a rocket engine.
No, I’m not overstating my case. It seems to me that many Americans actually celebrate stupid and discount anyone who may actually have expert credentials. There’s a name for this: The Dunning–Kruger effect. If someone doesn’t know anything about a topic, then he doesn’t know enough to understand just how stupid he is. This person knows a few facts (maybe wrong) and assumes to tell anyone who listens how he has the answers. He believes he knows more than he does because he doesn’t know enough to know he’s stupid.
I think the most outlandish example of a celebration of stupid I can recall is from the State of Tennessee, where a MAGA politician on TV was railing against going to university. Too much school puts dangerous and wrong ideas in your head. Higher education pollutes the mind and makes young people embrace crazy, libtard thoughts. Of course, the story about this politician mentioned his higher education. I guess good for me but not for thee.
In the US, many conservatives equate higher education with liberal voting. So, college is bad for the conservative, Republican, cause. It’s interesting that most strongman leaders around the world, Erdogan, Trump, Putin, et al, seem to all have the same base of support: rural voters of lower income with less education. Maybe there really is a connection between buying Trump’s bullshit and being stupid.