Last year, Mr. Cleese was responding to a number of questions online and one asked who, out of three possibilities, might be nominated for the Twit of the Year Award. His brilliant response got me thinking because: 1) this ‘twit’ phenomena doesn't seem to be limited to just those few, and 2) none of them are brainless buffoons. They're intelligent.
And then I thought, oh my God, maybe that's the problem.
As someone who has been stupid their entire life, I have come to the conclusion that we have a problem with intelligent people. All over the planet educated leaders and influencers have: 1) put things into disarray over an assortment of competing political, religious and cultural passions, 2) painted themselves into ethical and moral corners with a combination of ambition and tunnel vision, 3) increased deficits while acting like they were saving the economy – at the expense of humanitarian, environmental and scientific pursuits, and 4) in some cases continue to spread distrust and discontent – all because of unjust events that happened long before their birth. I don't have to cite specific examples. Just open up a newspaper.
Stupid people see things as simply as possible, cut to the chase and come up with simple, fast solutions to fix things. Perhaps we need to look at putting our intelligent people through a ten-step program. Call it Smartoholics Anonymous. They would stand up in front of a crowd and admit they're hooked on being intelligent. Their opening statement would go, “Hello, my name is ______ and I am a smartoholic. I have been ten days stupid.” Then, everyone in the audience would sigh, shed a tear and send out a cheer because they'd know this person was on their way back to being well again.
And then maybe we could get on with the business of dimming down all their bright ideas that have just gotten the rest of us into all this trouble.
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