At the beginning of the pandemic of 2020, I wrote a blog post about how it was a time of healing.
Yeah, well.…
It’s still a time when healing is possible. We did get off to a good start, after all. But given the way people are, things don’t look quite as promising now. We’re divided and angry and nasty to one another. Again. And there’s one simple reason why:
Humans are stupid.
I’m stupid, you’re stupid, we’re all stupid. It’s high time we accepted this unfortunate reality. It’s in our DNA.
Let me first define what “stupid” means to me. You might very well consider my definition stupid, but here it is:
Being stupid is to repeatedly and without reason do what harms yourself or harms others, mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually, or harms the world we must successfully live in together or end up dying in together, sooner than necessary, because we did those harmful things.
Now if you find it offensive being called stupid, ask yourself this question: Am I a member of the human race? If your answer is “yes,” then take some time to look back at human history. A lot of bad stuff, huh? Okay, now look at what humans do every single day, right now, all around you. Can you honestly look at the story of humanity up to today and say we’re NOT stupid?
Humans have all the resources and accumulated knowledge we need for living peaceful, healthy, productive lives, but can’t seem to actually make that happen - even after centuries of working at it. What kind of people fail so horribly at something so easy and yet claim to want it so badly? Well … we know the answer to that question, don’t we?
Like the character of Grandpa, the curmudgeon in my book, Humanity Stew, I love people as individuals. We have many great qualities and possess amazing potential. We’re filled with tremendous capacity for love and kindness and courage. We even attain and exhibit wisdom on occasion (usually fleeting and quickly followed by doing something incredibly dumb). But, like Grandpa says, “It’s when you put us in groups, things get all fouled up.” Yes, when you look at us as a group – as a species – other than a lot of great music, a few good books, and a couple of movies, there’s not a whole lot to brag about. You could point to our technological advances, I suppose. But doesn’t our technology usually end up biting us in the ass? The ultimate example of this is likely going to be how artificial intelligence will soon be smart enough to get rid of us, simply for being a nuisance.
I wouldn’t call something an advancement if, as a result, we’re too dead to advance any further.
Yes, yes, I know, we did manage to put humans on the moon. We got some rocks and never went back. I did the same thing with seashells and Mexico, so what? In the wide view of the universe, that’s about as much of an accomplishment as managing to get out of bed and walk over to the dresser in the morning.
We will always do things that fall into the stupid category. It’s “human nature,” as the saying goes. We make bad decisions. We jump to conclusions without ample evidence, simply because … well, apparently because we want to have a conclusion and want it to satisfy some sort of need – which is usually our need to always be right, to win the argument. We put things we need in places where we later can’t find them. We say the wrong things. We contradict ourselves all the time. We put ourselves in a bind and then make things worse much of the time trying to get out. We typically lie to ourselves more than we lie to others. What kind of being lies to themselves to the point where they often end up believing those lies? A human being, that’s what kind.
Even in a free society, in which people can choose who their leaders are, we choose to elect known, proven, documented liars of both major political parties – self-serving, manipulative, amoral game-players. And then, after they’ve been in office and shown they do not have our best interests in mind (what a shock!) - only waging battle against the other party and exercising their greed and lust for power - we elect them AGAIN.
Of course, we do. What else would stupid humans do?
The pandemic has been a living laboratory for studying the nature of humanity, both good and bad. Once again, people have been harming one another, using both words and action as weapons, rather than unifying and healing.
On a related note, one thing I find interesting is how many people brought guns to protest stay-at-home orders. I’m not sure why. Were they afraid they might get robbed? I didn’t notice enemy troops or armed resistance, so they weren’t entering a war zone. I’m a bit confused over what was going on there. Just like I’m confused about why so many people seem to think good advice is a form of oppression or a plot to deprive them of liberty. I’m pretty sure if you can storm a state capital, armed with semi-automatic weapons, and not be arrested, you’re not being deprived of your liberty.
The reason such orders (and most laws) are even necessary is because people are incapable of doing what is smart or right on their own. We all know that. We’re not that stupid.
But I do have some advice for government officials: Ask next time. Americans have a problem with being told what to do, no matter how much sense it makes. So, whatever you do, don’t order people not to run with scissors or they’ll soon be barreling through the streets cutting up paper and fabric everywhere.
As if a pandemic wasn’t enough drama, after I began working on this post, the protests and riots began in the aftermath of a deadly incident of police brutality in Minneapolis – a city usually thought of as being somewhat less stupid than most. Such violent acts place normal human stupidity into an entirely different, more dangerous light. All I can think to say about this series of events is this - evil acts, especially repeated ones, create trauma. They invite understandably angry responses, which when they get out of control, as they often do, then lead to a vicious cycle of more evil acts, more trauma, and more angry responses. Aren’t such never-ending cycles of hate and anger the ultimate examples of human stupidity? And aren’t evil acts the most stupid thing any one person or group can do? Evil acts ripple through the ages repeating themselves until the cycle they began can be broken.
What happened recently was a reminder that there are certain kinds of people who will find a way to ruin everything. We encounter these ruiners/spoilsports frequently – in movie theatres, at concerts, in restaurants, and within our own family gatherings. They’re especially attracted to protests, because a protest gives them the opportunity to ruin things for a lot more people. Large, diverse groups were doing the right thing and peacefully drawing attention to a problem and then the ruiners showed up. The ruiners love chaos. They’re highly stupid.
Which brings us to the question: What can we do about all this human stupidity?
Here are two simple steps everyone can take to serve as starting points:
First, an obvious one - pause a moment and become aware of the harm you’re doing, or might do, to yourself, to others, to our world. Stop stupid in its tracks. Ask yourself, “Am I being stupid?” If you cannot immediately say, “no,” there’s a good chance the correct answer is “yes.”
Second, stop arguing. If you stop arguing with people all the time, maybe they’ll be less defensive and more inclined to turn down their stupidity dial a bit. Everyone wants to be “right” and win the argument. They’ll never budge, never change, if you engage in a contest with them. This is also human nature. What you should do instead is share information. Don’t criticize, just present the information and let others decide what to do with it. Say, “here you go, something to consider.”
We can never eliminate our stupidity completely, but we can strive for doing better – to possess greater awareness and to demonstrate more kindness. If we take these steps, maybe we can become a little less stupid, little by little, over time.
Finally, there’s one more thing you can do – perhaps the most difficult, but most important of all – be forgiving of others who do stupid things. After all, as we’ve established, they’re only being human.
Just like you and me.