Fixing Stupid

"You can't fix stupid." Sounds kind of arrogant, but my friend is not that way. He was just making a point, Some people just don't think and there's nothing you can do to make them. Or is there? What seems so obvious to me, isn't necessarily as obvious to everyone is it? Do drivers who stop when they have the right of way just not notice their surroundings on purpose? Well, no... Did the assistant my friend was talking about really not know that a sample kit for a marketing campaign should include samples? Do flashes of just "not being there" strike everyone at some time or another? I hope they do, since it happens to me more than I'd care to admit.

I looked up the source and it turns out to be the raunchy comic, Ron White. In context, his remark was about marrying for looks. Briefly, he points out while plastic surgery can fix defects to a degree and offset the effects of aging or excessive weight gain, you can't, etc.

But it was a week for stupid, it turns out. I went to a play in Atlanta called Gray Area. The setup for the story is a long-time critic takes a shot at Civil War re-enactors, and three unusual re-enactors from somewhere in the South decide to do something about it. They kidnap the critic, not for ransom, but to engage him in a debate about the far-ranging topics of Civil War re-enactors, the War of Northern Agression, racism and the Confederate flag. It's a farce, but it makes you wonder if the only way to get someone to sit down and listen is to kidnap him and take him into the woods.

It's a commentary on the state of civil discoursse in this world. In the program, the producer points out that many otherwise intelligent people simply shut down when faced with a diffferent opinion. Instead of discourse, people resort to name-calling. He writes "...I see people attacking each other and, more often than not, regarding the other person as stupid. Stupid has never been a conversation enhancer. Stupid has never mended a bridge. Stupid is a conversation ender. Actually, stupid becomes an argument escalator."

So, let's make a stab at "fixing stupid." Exercise a bit of patience, even some empathy, and don't even think stupid.