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Name: Vincent Wong
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Age: 18

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Saturday, August 13, 2005
|1:16 PM|


Virtue or Sin: Stupidity

Many people say that the best thing humans possess is their intelligence. Many people say that the best thing about being a human is the ability to learn from mistakes, and much faster than your average creature. Even I will not dispute this fact.

Take for example, the wolves. Fantastic creatures they are, working together, bringing down prey that would have otherwise overpowered any one of them easily. Such teamwork is almost unique in the animal kingdom. Powerful strength, great, snapping jaws, incredible speed, awe-inspiring endurance and stamina. Yet the tactics wolves use to chase down a deer much faster than them into the jaws of a waiting ambush, the tactics used to bring down an oxen which would have killed any one of them with a kick of its legs, the tactics they use to seperate the weak from their herd... All these were fashioned only after decades, even centuries of countless failures. Yes, it took them years upon years to figure out how to do this, to do that. How to faze and haze prey. How to trap and manuveur and ambush.

And look at their prey. After decades upon decades of falling for the same wolfish tricks over and over, they continue to stupidly run where they were chased, straight into the jaws of a trap, they continue to run about in circles in herds until the weak finally collapse; they never thought to stand their ground, to think up tactics to counter those of the wolves.

Humans? Why, humans innovate. Humans are creative, innovative, inventive creatures. The average human achieves in his lifespan at least ten times the amount of innovation a pack of wolves would for 5 generations. Humans are the inventors of the spoken word. Humans are the inventors of literature. Humans are the inventors of electricity... Just to name a few significant inventions out of a million.

Wow, you say. No wonder we rule this planet.

Bah, I say. We rule nothing but ourselves, and what good, I ask you, what good is there in ruling yourself? You are the King, yet you are also the merchants, the administrators, the aristocracy and the peasants. Humans rule humankind, and nothing more.

Well, certainly, I cannot dispute the fact that mother Earth is the platform for human progress. The entire planet is at our mercy. At the mercy of our industrialists, who spew toxic fumes into the air. At the mercy of our corrupt governments, who burn forests like people burn golden paper during the seventh month. At the mercy of people who spit, litter, shit and urinate in the cleanest springs and waterways. At the mercy of people who dig holes to fill with non-biodegradable stuff that is likely toxic. At the mercy of people who aim their CFC sprays in the air, determined to carve a hole out of the ozone layer.

Oh yes, we are masters of the planet. Masters indeed, who care nothing for the planet we are masters of, and yet masters still. How... masterous.

Many people say that the best thing humans possess is their intelligence. Many people say that the best thing about being a human is the ability to learn from mistakes, and much faster than your average creature. I say that it is stupidity, and our worst curse.

Stupidity is not a crime, apparently. There is no such thing as a stupid question, afterall. And, ultimately, genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.

More quotes? Why, certainly.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity. I'm not so sure about the former.
Albert Einstein(1879 - 1955)

Get all the fools to your side and you can be elected to anything.
Frank Dane

With stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.
Friedrich von Schiller(1759 - 1805)

To be stupid, selfish and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.
Gustave Flaubert(1821 - 1880)

The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity.
Harlan Ellison (1934 - )

Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education positively fortifies it.
Stephen Vizinczey

Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
Unknown

Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the priviledge.
Unknown

To succeed in the world, it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
Voltaire (1694 - 17778)

Indeed, the wise words of our some of the most intelligent beings on the face of this planet.

What say you? Is stupidity a Virtue, a virtue of intelligence, of quick learning, or a sin? A sin of endless... well, stupidity?

Wait, did you hear wrongly? Did I just equate intelligence to stupidity?

Well, duh I did, when they are the same thing, you equate them. Stupidity equals intelligence.

Yes, my theory is that the more intelligent you become, the more stupid you are... and vice versa, of course.

You disagree... as usual.

Well, let me list some of the most "Intelligent" things ever done, and you tell me whether they are stupid:

1) The concerted hijacking of planes to crash into the human world in the 911 incident. It had to be geniuses behind that plot, able to take advantage of the world's complacency and strike a stunning, incredible blow to the world's strongest super-power. (Or so they like to claim.)

2) The very cliched argument about atomic bombs. You know the routine; Albert Einstein equated E to MC squared, and caused the biggest detonation yet seen on the planet in WWII. Albert was hailed as one of the most intelligent people in the world...

3) The Industrial Revolution pushed humankind into a new age of prosperity... and pollution-ity. Considered as the one most important Revolution to take place so far.

4) The indigenious, nameless hackers who create an army of viruses to crash and destroy the internet, one of the greatest inventions of the world. (I'm referring to the viruses, not the internet.) Tsk tsk, even dis-organised crime nowadays employ technological geniuses.

5) The countless scholars out there writing rubbish like this, wasting time and money, and trees too, for when they print out their books, usually with the words "Half" and "Blood" and "Prince" in it, they print in such numbers that they overshoot the population of the world by half. (How kind of them to provide reading materials for the baboons as well. Now, at last there won't be any "I R [red-buttock-ed] BABOON" cartoons.)

I could go on. Or you could. If you thought hard enough about it... why, its apparent even in your school, in your life. Ever wondered why you felt stupider everytime you pick up pen and paper and start doing work? Voila.

The strength of human stupidty cannot be underestimated. Look at it this way: for how long have we been farting into the air our CFC products? For how long? For decades! And for how long have the same, repetitive warnings from scientists that we will be destroying Earth soon if we don't stop, the same prophecies of global warming... Oh sure, there have been efforts to stop the ozone depletion and greenhouse effect. Well, they are exactly that. Efforts. I don't like geography, so I won't name the tedious facts one by one, of human UNWILLINGNESS to learn from mistakes.

How many freaking "Great" wars have we been through? Each time how many have freaking died? Well, enough, you would think, that we would think twice about wars. Well, true enough, we think twice, but only that. We think only twice. And what happens when the next terrorist decides (with the same idiotic twice-time thinking) to blow himself up? The freaking president thinks twice then goes to war.

Stop thinking so much, and maybe we can get some real things done.

Do we learn from our mistakes? Do we truly? You tell me that. You lose your wallet. You tell yourself, "The f***ing hell! I'm NEVER going to let my wallet get lost AGAIN!"

And what happens 2 decades later? Oooh, where's my freaking wallet?

And now? Now you accuse me of going off point. What's memory got to do with stupidity? Well, to tell the truth, the title was alittle misleading. We're not talking about stupidity. We're talking about how stupid humans are. And memory serves a huge purpose. You wouldn't be very smart if you forgot everything your teacher told you five minutes after he told you.

Well, 2 decades isn't 5 minutes.

Okay, now, tell me. If the President of the US of A one day forgets the constitution, and decides to install himself as a tyrant like that trumped up Saddam... is he any good to the people? Well, certainly he was, since he got elected, but the day he forgets the constitution, the day he forgets his purpose, the day he loses his path. Is he anymore a kind, smart, intelligent ruler?

What is humankind's purpose? What did God, if there is god, mean for us to do? If there is no god, what is it, then, that nature means for us to do? I have yet to see a creature of nature have no purpose. Everything is supposedly linked in the foodchain. Almost everything serves a purpose: snakes eat rats, to stop infestations. Wolves eat prey and hunt together, thriving and ridding nature of the weak and helpless, keeping stronger creatures' population in check. Others prey on wolves, keeping the wolves in check, and etcetera.

Humans? What is it that humans are made to do? Preach the one true god to wolves? Certainly not. Read and write and wear huge, thick spectacles and do nothing else? Certainly not. Make brothels so you can degrade your fellow Man by selling the female (and sometimes male) species of your race? Certainly not. Fight wars for honour, loyalty, chivalry and courage? Certainly not. Why, then, have so many humans turned to these purposes that are not our purpose, and wasted their entire life away? What is humankind supposed to be?

Are we supposed to control the population of anything by eating it? Are we supposed to bring civilization to wilderness? Are we supposed to fly to the skies and shoot each other down?

Existentialism. Tell me, what seriously, do you think your purpose in this world is to do? Have babies? Get a job?

Do you play any part in nature then?

Do humans play any part in nature? If no... doesn't that mean that humans are here to do our own things, by our own right, and have nothing to do with nature? If so... are we not parasites?

An unpleasant truth, one which I myself am unwilling to face. The only other explanation, that we have a purpose we don't know about, is just as bad to face. If we have a purpose, and we don't know it, and we aren't doing it, (or at least, only some of us are doing it), then doesn't that make us the same as the USA President I hypothesized as to have "lost his way"? Are we then, tyrants, useless creatures?

What good is memory, let me ask you, what good is memory that can last at least 2 decades, if we don't remember our purpose? For a goldfish, whose memory lasts no more than 5 minutes, but who knows its place and purpose in nature - to eat the minute (or miniscule, or microscopic) organisms in its freshwater pond and be eaten in turn by larger creatures - would be worth more than us if we do not know our own purpose. And if we don't have a purpose... then we would be parasites.

The fact doesn't change that we have 'lost our way'. We no longer know our purpose, or if we do, we're not working to it as a race. We're going off in different directions; that guy would be a pimp for all his life until he is shot by the police in a raid; that girl will be a prostitute until she dies from HIV; that man would do nothing more than study and play computer games for the rest of his life until he gets a heatstroke from excercising after spending years infront of his computer; that man will die in the army, fighting for a cause that would fail even after his death.

Don't give me the crap about every man having his own purpose. I'm talking about Man's purpose as a Whole. I don't care about man's (notice no more caps) purpose in his life. Individuality don't count here, not when we're talking about Existentialism of humankind. If Man doesn't know its purpose, if Man doesn't work towards its purpose as a whole, then what worth is the man? There is no worth.

Stupidity, virtue or sin? Is being stupid a sin? Or is not knowing our purpose more sinful. Is being intelligent a sin, or is having too much individualism sinful? Or does it simply not matter?


Looking to the future~
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