Wednesday, August 29, 2007

[stupidity] there's a little bit in each of us

The thing with stupidity is that there is always someone looking down on you, thinking you are just so limited, at the same time that you're having a good laugh at some other klutz.

It's a dangerous occupation.

However, Bill Bryson [Notes from a Big Country, Black Swan, 1998] is right when he says there's an awful lot of it about. Maybe it's the dumbing down of education, maybe it's the high-death diet the west eats, maybe it's the water. I think it has something to do with clubbing.

See what you think as I hand over here to Bryson:

Here, for instance, is the actress Brooke Shields, without any help from grown-ups, explaining to an interviewer why you shouldn't smoke: 'Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life.'

Well said, Brooke.

Bryson was a little before Denise's time but I'm sure she would have earned an honourable mention.

And here is the singer Mariah Carey getting to the heart of Third World troubles: 'Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff.'

Whatever is the stage beyond the mind boggling is the stage I reach each time I read that quotation.

It takes the form over here of swaggering about, nodding sagely and mocking gutturally whilst gesticulating with flailing arms and highlights the most pressing need for the truly stupid - the need to find someone even more stupid than themselves.

And yet, one can't help but feel that they're happy in their wild animal luxury and one last thing - we are, none of us, getting any younger and intellect … well … well it does sort of drop off, you know.

I think that's what I was trying to say.

12 comments:

  1. Truly, I don't spend my life being frustrated by chauvinistic comments, but may I set you a challenge to blog on some equally mindbogglingly fatuous comments by blokes? Either side of the Atlantic would be fine, any continent, any level of wealth or poverty or political persuasion. I know you will succeed in this mission if you care to take on the task. You are the man for the job - a heat seeking missile that never misses its mark.

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  2. Mopsa, your word is my command. Can you point me in the right direction?

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  3. James: Not that I don't love seeing Denise Richards picture, but what exactly did she have to do with your post? (unless maybe you just forgot to include her stupidity?)

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  4. I see you were just including her as an honorable mention. The location in the post was kind of confusing.

    Btw, did you see the comments on the links post?

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  5. Loss of intellect as we age........ agree. :) I was way smarter 5 years ago.

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  6. Perhaps you can start with your very own medallion man, Boris? Enough hints and tips - grab that cudgel.

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  7. When these celebs get out of their depth they do say stupid things. Intellect doesn't always "drop off" as we get older - that is a matter of luck.

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  8. Mopsa, it's not as if I haven't been showing stupid men - what about the gay post? As for Boris - he's not stupid, just wild. We need a universally agreed stupid man.

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  9. The United States has become a place where entertainers and professional athletes are mistaken for people of importance.
    -Robert A. Heinlein

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  10. Surely President Bush qualifies as a stupid man on the basis of public gaffs?

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  11. Yes, Heather and great to see you here. I ran a post on a selection of his gaffes [I have hundreds on file]. I've posted on many stupid me.

    Now my question - why did you look at my post and think in terms of women being unfairly singled out?

    For example, I have attacked only Europeans here. Where are the black stupid people? Where are the Chinese? What have I against Europeans?

    Do you see what I'm getting at? why did you choose a male/female thing when that was the last thing on my mind?

    Why did two women choose the victimization of women as the theme of this post when it was about stupidity in general? And if you say: "Because only women were featured" [by the way take a look at the lower photo], then I say "Why were only Europeans featured?"

    This is blatant Europeanism!!

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  12. Perhaps we can simply agree that those who are famous for summat should stick to what they are famous for, and unless their fame is for having a broad mind and strong intellectual capacity, they should keep their inane thoughts to themselves or expect to be lambasted for serial stupidity.

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