Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Idiots

Idiots. The world is full of them. I try not be identified as one as I try my best to keep my mouth shut (especially at business meetings and in mixed company) so I don't sound like one. 


I probably am a idiot, but at least if I shut up, it will be more difficult to determine by other folks.


As one astute reader chimed in with a quote:


"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open ones mouth and remove all doubt." - Unknown.

I wrote an article that appeared on Lew Rockwell yesterday. In that article I basically expressed my opinion that the government should leave people alone and let them live and let live. Of course the government won't do that, but I was just expressing my opinion.

See? Like an idiot would do.

Many people wrote into to agree with me. "Live and let live!" They said... Excepting in the few cases where they agreed with 100% of what I wrote then were inconsistent in their beliefs because they want government out of our lives but they were against gays marriage and legalized abortions.

One guy wrote to me, first quoting what I had written:

"Take abortion, for example. If some woman wants to get an abortion (I like to think no one wants to get an abortion, but some feel a need too) then what business is that of yours and mine? It's none of our business and none of he business of the central government either. An abortion is the business of that woman and her god and, hopefully, her husband or boyfriend."

He added:

Mr. Rogers, I will not waste time and effort trying to persuade you how utterly wrong this much of your essay is. I merely express my metaphysical certitude that, one day and some way, you will learn. And express my hope that the learning experience works out well for you.

What a pompous clown. May I hand out an idiot award? Thank you your royal highness!

I responded:

Thanks (for expressing wishes for my learning experience).

And, you, yours.

Mike

It's self-righteous people like this that make our world a screwed up place with their judgmental thinking. He hopes the "learning experience" works out well for me? 

Laughable. What about his learning experience or does he already know everything that needs to be known?

I'll give you a short example why people like this are wrong.

You can hear this sort of logic, often, when the discussions come to the topic of the existence of god. Some are sure there is a god, some are not; some are absolutely convinced that there is no god. 

I have my god, don't know if it's the same as yours (doubt it), and I wish to "worship" in the way I see fit. I hope you do too. (mine could be the big electrode in the sky - I wonder if God even speaks English?)

The line is crossed when people state vigorously, "There absolutely is (or isn't) a god!" Why does this cross the line for me? Well, consider the fact that man has been searching for god and the reason for his existence since the beginning of time. 

For thousands of years, since man first gazed at the stars, the great philosophers have pondered this question. Socrates, Plato, Confucius, Bob Dylan and many more. People who are much wiser than you or I and they never came up with the answer... .

Yet some guy, say, living in Des Moines, Iowa at the ripe old age of 46-years-old thinks he knows all the answers and understands everything there is to know about life? What the greatest minds mankind has ever known couldn't answer this guy thinks he knows?  

Ridiculous when you stop to think about it, right? Even more ridiculous that he is so self-righteous that it never occurs to him how idiotic such a notion is. Ha! Ha! Ha!

Yes. I laugh. But remember, I am an idiot. 

Well, I may be an idiot but at least I'm no fool.

3 comments:

  1. "The line is crossed when people state vigorously, "There absolutely is (or isn't) a god!""

    Really?

    The line for me is when they try to push it on me or boss me about with it,... they can say and believe anything they want.

    Did I tell you I was pulled out of work with everyone else on 9/11/2001 and told by our boss to bow our heads and pray as he preached?
    Two of us didn't bow. The other guy said, "What about all those other People who die, like in car crashes, how come no one does this stuff for them?" As if, "What's so special about this lot?"

    The two of us were unemployed the next day while the others remained.

    Personally, I don't understand how anyone can walk out of a house and turn around and say there's no such thing as carpenters. But that's just me. The forcing it on others is what's bad.

    It seems to be a lot like proving love exists. YMMV.

    Let live and let die.

    - clark

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gosh Mike, I'm not one those bible thumping anti abortion types, but I do think we ought to think about the possibility that in some cases the anti abortion people are correct when they describe it as murder.

    If some nut job hit an 8 month pregnant woman in the belly and killed the baby, would he not be charged with murder? So in what way is it a simple choice that people should have if it is actually murder?

    Of course, it's more complicated than that. Aborting a 1, 2 or 3 month fetus as opposed to an 8 month fetus would appear to be different thing morally, though that's a medical question (at what point a fetus becomes a human) that I can not answer.

    If you condone murder of an 8 month fetus as a matter of choice and convenience, then are you not implicitly condoning the murder of others, sick elderly people and foreigners living near oil for example?

    Maybe this is the sort of point the other person who posted a comment was thinking you should consider. Are you sure he was trying to say something about religious retribution?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks guys and Andy,

    I still think that, since I am not a pregnant women, what a pregnant women does is not my business.

    ReplyDelete

Comments must be succinct & relevant to the story. Comments are checked frequently and abusive, rude or profane comments will be deleted. I’m just one of many bloggers who answer questions online and sometimes for the press. I usually handle questions about Japan, marketing or the economy, so in those areas I’m more likely to make sense and less likely to say something really stupid. If I post something here that you find helpful or interesting, that’s wonderful. This is my personal blog. If you don't like what you have read here then, just like when you go into a restaurant or bar that allows smoking, if you don't like it, there's something at the front that has hinges on it and it is called a "door."