Inspired by this inspirational essay:
http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/death-is-a-pronounced-differentiator-between-the-urban-and-the-rural-writes-tm-krishna/article6323917.ece
For full trip value please read the inspiration before reading this blog.
Stupid is a fascinating word, its origins being traced to the Latin word stupere, which means to be amazed or stunned. Its synonym ‘moron’ also connects quite beautifully with the Sanskrit moodha or the Tamil muttal, mundam, moodevi etc. Stupidity is a tantalising idea, which numbs our mind. Hearing the word, you immediately visualise a clueless dunce.
Stupidity is a word for the living; a word for all of us who know that no matter how intelligent we may think we are, we would once in a while utter an utterly dimwitted comment or write an essay so full of pseudo intellectual babble that it would make junkies want whatever that we seem to be smoking. A person is not stupid only when someone else knows he is stupid. Even when someone else knows that a person is stupid, the stupid person might be oblivious to the fact that he is stupid. Many stupid people are such loud mouthed windbags that it puts the claims on our ape ancestry into little doubt.
Express rage at falling pass cutoffs in schools and immediately you will be dubbed an elitist and asked “Have stupid people not graduated from high school in the US?” If you were to express concern over the how stupid Shah Rukh Khan movies are, you would be perceived as a "peter party". So what am I protesting against? Can we ever discuss our boneheaded dumbness without bringing politics, history, nationality etc. into the question? Is there a problem with the stupidity of the deed or the inherent stupidity of people themselves? How does the stupidity attributed to the person vary with the person who commits the stupid deed? These are questions that I have to answer for myself.
Stupidity is a pronounced differentiator between the urban and the rural. In mainstream narrative, a city dweller who can speak incorrect English with a fake accent and throw intellectual sounding garbage with confidence is considered to be far less stupid than a villager who can't speak English, but can at least tell time by looking up at the sky. The urban vision of India is the only vision that we know, want to know and are constantly told about. The rural landscape is a regressive, caste ridden cesspool of "patriarchy", spit stains, open air defecation and you guessed it, stupidity. The stories of a retarded Dumbani speeding on city roads and killing pedestrians will flash across our TV screen and newspapers and all it will get from us is a non-linguistic groan of sadness. Our concerns about urban stupidity begins and ends there.
So its clear that not everyone is equal in stupidity. The social or political value of a person can be gauged by the actions that people around him do once he commits a stupid deed. Relationships, family and wealth separate us. When we have a child who is as dumb as a cardboard box, it pains us. This is because it is our dumb genes that are inside of that child and our hopes of an eternal life are realistically placed only upon our own progeny. When the neighbour's child does well in school, sports and arts, but our child still cannot put pen on paper and draw a stickman, it is natural to feel pained by that stupidity.
It is comforting that I am not weird. I don't share the same feelings of anguish towards the stupidity of my own child and the stupidity of another child in the playground. I value human and communal relationships and do not go around trying to reduce the cosmic index of thickheadedness. The passport I hold blurs my reactions to stupidity. When a man of Indian origin wins the Fields Medal, I feel happy that here is an Indian who has done great things with his intellect, and this would hopefully encourage us Indians to work harder and become less inane. Hopefully children would get inspired and inspire each other to conquer stupidity.
Again, one stupid person is rarely equal to another. The further the distance you are from the wannabe mobster speeding on the highway, the safer you are. Humanity has spent many worthwhile centuries wondering how to sharpen the intellect, and may this pursuit continue. It is indeed ironically apposite that I write this piece on September 9, just a day after the world literacy day. It might be a good time for me to consciously try and be a bit less stupid in the future.
http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/death-is-a-pronounced-differentiator-between-the-urban-and-the-rural-writes-tm-krishna/article6323917.ece
For full trip value please read the inspiration before reading this blog.
Stupid is a fascinating word, its origins being traced to the Latin word stupere, which means to be amazed or stunned. Its synonym ‘moron’ also connects quite beautifully with the Sanskrit moodha or the Tamil muttal, mundam, moodevi etc. Stupidity is a tantalising idea, which numbs our mind. Hearing the word, you immediately visualise a clueless dunce.
Stupidity is a word for the living; a word for all of us who know that no matter how intelligent we may think we are, we would once in a while utter an utterly dimwitted comment or write an essay so full of pseudo intellectual babble that it would make junkies want whatever that we seem to be smoking. A person is not stupid only when someone else knows he is stupid. Even when someone else knows that a person is stupid, the stupid person might be oblivious to the fact that he is stupid. Many stupid people are such loud mouthed windbags that it puts the claims on our ape ancestry into little doubt.
Express rage at falling pass cutoffs in schools and immediately you will be dubbed an elitist and asked “Have stupid people not graduated from high school in the US?” If you were to express concern over the how stupid Shah Rukh Khan movies are, you would be perceived as a "peter party". So what am I protesting against? Can we ever discuss our boneheaded dumbness without bringing politics, history, nationality etc. into the question? Is there a problem with the stupidity of the deed or the inherent stupidity of people themselves? How does the stupidity attributed to the person vary with the person who commits the stupid deed? These are questions that I have to answer for myself.
Stupidity is a pronounced differentiator between the urban and the rural. In mainstream narrative, a city dweller who can speak incorrect English with a fake accent and throw intellectual sounding garbage with confidence is considered to be far less stupid than a villager who can't speak English, but can at least tell time by looking up at the sky. The urban vision of India is the only vision that we know, want to know and are constantly told about. The rural landscape is a regressive, caste ridden cesspool of "patriarchy", spit stains, open air defecation and you guessed it, stupidity. The stories of a retarded Dumbani speeding on city roads and killing pedestrians will flash across our TV screen and newspapers and all it will get from us is a non-linguistic groan of sadness. Our concerns about urban stupidity begins and ends there.
So its clear that not everyone is equal in stupidity. The social or political value of a person can be gauged by the actions that people around him do once he commits a stupid deed. Relationships, family and wealth separate us. When we have a child who is as dumb as a cardboard box, it pains us. This is because it is our dumb genes that are inside of that child and our hopes of an eternal life are realistically placed only upon our own progeny. When the neighbour's child does well in school, sports and arts, but our child still cannot put pen on paper and draw a stickman, it is natural to feel pained by that stupidity.
It is comforting that I am not weird. I don't share the same feelings of anguish towards the stupidity of my own child and the stupidity of another child in the playground. I value human and communal relationships and do not go around trying to reduce the cosmic index of thickheadedness. The passport I hold blurs my reactions to stupidity. When a man of Indian origin wins the Fields Medal, I feel happy that here is an Indian who has done great things with his intellect, and this would hopefully encourage us Indians to work harder and become less inane. Hopefully children would get inspired and inspire each other to conquer stupidity.
Again, one stupid person is rarely equal to another. The further the distance you are from the wannabe mobster speeding on the highway, the safer you are. Humanity has spent many worthwhile centuries wondering how to sharpen the intellect, and may this pursuit continue. It is indeed ironically apposite that I write this piece on September 9, just a day after the world literacy day. It might be a good time for me to consciously try and be a bit less stupid in the future.
