Strategies in Life
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009I watched my boys, 11 & 13, do something stupid the other night. I love them, they’re both really great kids so they weren’t doing anything wrong or bad or harmful, it was actually very innocent and, on some level, cute. I just thought they made a stupid decision.
They’re kids so they’re supposed to do those kinds of things, that’s how we learn the most valuable lessons in life: Do something dumb= Find out what not to do (though some of us need several repetitions before we finally figure it out). The reason it irked me, as it turns out, goes back to something I used to say all the time and something that I realize I still feel very strongly about… I hate stupidity!
It’s not really a hate, like I hate cheaters, drug dealers, and criminals, the hate I’m talking about here comes from inside. It’s guttural, visceral, and self-centered.
For my entire life, as long as I can remember, nothing, I mean nothing even comes close, nothing makes me madder, angrier, or more disgusted than me doing something stupid. Sadly, I’ve made myself aware of that fact waaaaay to many times in my life. In fact, I may not know much about life and success and happiness, but there are some things that I would bet my life on that will NOT lead to more success and happiness in life: stupidity, ignorance, and laziness.
Analyzing the concept, there’s two kinds of “stupid:” conscious stupidity and ignorant stupidity.
Ignorant and dumb are simply not knowing; from being uneducated. Ignorant and dumb can be fixed with education. Most of the time stupid is lumped into the same category because a lot of the stupid things we do are because of ignorance, or, more simply put, we are just too dumb to know any better.
We all consciously do stupid things for entertainment, or showing out, or just for fun. Being a Redneck and an old Bull Rider, I know this fact well. Conscious stupidity becomes damaging when people take it too far (and someone is always taking it too far) and other people get hurt physically, emotionally, or simply get their feelings hurt. There is a conscious stupidity line that should not be crossed!
Thinking about this stupid concept in detail while working on this article, I realize now that my dislike of stupidity is one of the major driving forces (maybe the main force actually) in me getting college educated and my obsessively continuously learning new things and developing new skills. My absolute dislike of being stupid motivates me as much as just about anything motivates me! I don’t have a problem with that.
I hope that maturity and education have helped me reduce the amounts of my conscious and ignorant stupidity. Wish I could bottle it up and sell it!