Stupidity is a terminal disease
I pride myself on my ability to be open and honest and to do the right thing, even in the face of adversity.
Many times the only way to solve a problem is to confront it head-on, to cut the bullshit and get right to the point. Screw the 21st century PC crap, the ultra-sensitive approach and the side-dish of complimentary bullshit that accompanies every bit of criticism. We have become so good at skirting the issues that sometimes we forget that in doing so we are doing ourselves and the person we seemingly want to protect, a huge disservice.
And that is exactly what I did NOT do today when I was confronted (perhaps even accosted?) by an act of stupidity so profound, it can only be rivaled by the re-election of G'Dubya in 2004. And that, my friend, takes some doing!
To me, engaging in stupid behaviour does not necessarily mean that that person committing the act is stupid. In fact, many stupid-doers are, for all practical reasons, quite intelligent. Perhaps there is something in the very nature of their intelligence that predisposes them to doing stupid things, or perhaps the more intelligent one is, the more stupid one tends to act. Which could explain for instance why the world is in the mess it is in... merely because we rely on the "intelligent" people to tell us what to do... hehe. We generally tend to blame awful decisions on intentional perversity, astute mischievousness, megalomania, etc. They are there, all right; but any careful study of history, or current events, leads to the invariable conclusion that the single biggest source of terrible mistakes is sheer stupidity.
Even our educational institutions will not admit some students are in fact not as intelligent as their peers. Their policy is to regard all students as equal, despite obvious differences in intelligence and ability. The reduction of all to this level of mediocrity instills in people an unrealistic sense of whom they really are and what they are capable of. I am not saying we should discourage people from reaching their goals and being all that they can be… but when someone has done or is about to do something really stupid, we need to tell them so in no uncertain terms. Let the truth be known.
The most dangerous people in existence are people who think they are intelligent when in fact they are just plain stupid. It is one thing to be intelligent and act stupidly on the odd occasion, but quite another to be stupid and not knowing it. My solution... confront all forms of stupidity wherever and whenever you may encounter them even at the risk of appearing insensitive, politically incorrect and boorish. Who owe it to ourselves and to those we live with.... we even owe it to stupid poeple to make them aware fct that they are NOT the sharpest tools in the shed.
Now... let me get back to what I was doing before all of this started and finish the letter I'm writing to Thabo.
