Being stupid is one of those things at which
the human race excels. The word was probably first coined as Adam and Eve
trekked out of Eden to the sound of Angel swords swishing backwards and
forwards. "What did you go and do a stupid thing like that for?" says he.
She replies along the lines that if Adam had been a proper man then he'd
have taken an interest in the things she did for a change and stopped her,
and anyhow, he'd done it too. And another thing, why...(I've edited Eve's
speech for the sake of brevity but will just make comment that Adam soon
invented another word, to nag)
Cain was stupid for not listening to God about
animal sacrifice, and then getting so upset about it all. And everyone
in the whole world showed immense stupidity for laughing at Noah building
the ark. In fact, when you think about it, without stupidity there wouldn't
be much good comedy or tragedy. We all like a good laugh at the expense
of others and a good cry when it's too close to home for comfort. It's
a truism that we think we're utterly cool while other people are stupid
nerds. It's a fundamental characteristic of humanity that has enabled us
to invent class, politics, wars, one decent North London soccer team and
another called Arsenal*, aesthetics, philosophy, and newspapers because
they thrive on diverse opinion. The ultimate 'where it's at' divide is
that between those who know God and the pagan masses. The former are so
cool you could keep your beer at the right temperature for years whereas
the latter are so unhip it's amazing they can still walk.
Stupidity is often linked with rationality and logic. Those of you
as young as me will remember the group Supertramp having a hit album in
1979, 'Breakfast in America' (although it will be cold by the time you
get there). Being a literal sort of chap I took them up on the offer and
did indeed enjoy a number of breakfasts in the USA that year. The big FM
radio hit when I was there was a song from that album called 'The Logical
Song'. At one point, Roger Hodgson, the lead singer, trying to make an
arty-farty
comment about the capricious nature of life in general and possibly
taking the mickey out of the 4/4 nature of rock'n'roll, shouts out in time
with the music, "one, two three, five!" Ironically there's actually quite
a lot of logic to these lyrics. They form the first four numbers in the
renowned Fibonacci series where each number is the sum of the preceding
two. Statisticians since Fibonacci have noted how the natural world tends
to conform to this series of numbers.
Human behaviour can often be accurately gauged by Fibonacci numbers
too, but that's another story because this article is beginning to get
far too sensible. You probably think this is still a stupid article and
wonder if I've got anything worthwhile to say. That's a good question.
Another good question is why God built stupidity into the human design.
Perhaps he didn't and it was just a rather unfortunate spin-off from our
gift of free will. It could be the mechanism that God uses to make sure
that we don't get to big for our Nike trainers, a kind of portable Tower
of Babel. Perhaps you've
puzzled this one out already - answers please on email, titled:
"Why I'm Stupid", signed ....................................(your name),
Thank you.
*I wish to take this opportunity to point out that many of my best friends are, or rather, were Arsenal supporters, and that the derogatory references to AFC appearing regularly in Obiter Dictum is purely a literary device to elicit cheap humour. Considering we're talking Arsenal here, it could only be cheap humour.