We Can Fix Stupid

Really?  You can't fix stupid?

Perhaps at least we can work to prevent it.

There's too many stories in the news everyday regarding stupid.  We encounter stupid everywhere: walking down the street, in our spiritual organizations, in restaurants, on school boards, city councils, in local county, state and federal government, in our media, at our jobs, in our clubs, trolling on social media, and even at our kid's soccer games.

So if we can't stupid, we're all really screwed. No wonder Elon Musk is working so hard and fast to colonize Mars.

Stupidity is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, wit or sense.--Wikipedia

Seriously. We have to fix stupid.

No, for real. If you care about the future of our species I implore you to consider it may be time to stop sitting on the sidelines, sharing the stories on Facebook, and having a good laugh.

It may very well be true we can't fix stupid but at the very least we must take matters into our own hands to ensure the stupid become a dwindling class.

Start with promoting and supporting all forms education, over communicate, take risks, vote for the well-informed, report stupidity, blog, protest, expect proper grammar, join a group, start a movement, write a book, and most of all, remember:

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.--Albert Einstein

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.--Michel de Montaigne

A newspaper is a public trust, and we will suffer as a society without them. It is not the Internet that has killed them. It is their own greed, it is their own stupidity, it is capitalism that has taken our daily newspapers from us.--Michael Moore

I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.--Frank Zappa

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Change Happens

Change is relentless and affects all things.

It is a fact, there is absolutely nothing in the universe capable of standing perfectly still, except perhaps the stubborn thoughts in our heads.

Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life.--Jackie Robinson

Change or get out of the way.

Simply put, people who fight for the status quo are asking to be left behind by the universe. They choose short term comfort for certain extinction -- and those of us who stand on the sidelines to watch are complicit in their negligence.

Success is shy - it won't come out while you're watching.--Tennessee Williams

So the choice is ours, to stand by while our leaders resist change, or to instigate change to resist those leaders.

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Resolution for Change

Resolve to use social media as tool to enact positive change.

I saw a young boy yesterday challenge a hardware sales associate to find a meter stick for his school project.  Perplexed, the sales associate consulted others by radio to no avail.  By the time the boy's mother arrives she is clearly dumbfounded by the associate's shrug and ignorance of the item.  She goes on to describe a wooden stick with measurements indicated.  The associate grins, takes them to a shelf,  and proudly produces a yard stick.  "No", she says, "it's longer, a meter stick, you know to measure millimeters and centimeters."

It's an insignificant transaction, but it brings to my mind how resistant to positive change we are as a society.   How stupid we must look to the rest of the world when we stubbornly cling to outmoded ways. Is it stubbornness, superiority, stupidity, laziness, greed, or just human nature that hold back our progress?

Perhaps it's all of the above. My gut tells me though we're running out of time waiting for common sense change to simply happen.  I see too many politicians, corporate executives, journalists, administrators, educators, leaders, and others seemly imprisoned by the status quo. History shows some go so far as to even enshrine stagnation by enacting laws or building barriers to prevent and bury change.  So what to do?

Social media now enables a near universal access to news of scientific finding, evolving technology, religious freedom, corporate greed, political wrongdoing, human rights, fairness, justice, etc. -- increasingly there seems no reason for common folks armed with knowledge to wait for their leaders, they can act on their own. My motivation came two days ago via radio.

I heard an interview with Seth Godin regarding his new book, What to do when it's your turn. (and it's always your turn).  

One particular thought of his really resonated with me (and has inspired this blog), the idea that you owe it to the world to pick up the microphone and say something meaningful.  He advises that your efforts might work and they might not but that’s OK.  Not to run away from the fear, but not to ignore it either. He said, "The ability to live in that tension and discover what you can do in the midst of that… that is artistry."

Well artistry or not, my microphone is now turned on to spur change.