My mother has told me for forty years,"You can't do anything to change

people. That's just the way it is."

Hmm. If that's the way she felt, then why did she discipline

me when I was young and why did she send me to school?

Of course, her fortitude in action is questionable because when

I try to explain something to her she is always going, "Huh? Why?

I don't understand anything about that."

When I try to simplifiy the explanation, she says, "I'm not stupid,

you don't have to talk to me like that."

So I go up a level and then she says, "Why are you showing off

using all those technical terms. Why can't you just say what

you mean?"

At which point I just start making stuff up to see if she

will catch on.

Which gets boring because she usually doesn't.

I mean, my father's a pain in the butt for various reasons,

but he usually uses more than one gear in his brain.


It was my experience when I worked on VWs in order to have

something to drive that if you didn't pay attention to the

entire vehicle, then you really didn't deserve to drive it.

It has also been my experience that people who don't work

on their own vehicles use them like toilets. They sit on them,

do their business, and then get up and walk away without

any thought of why it works or how much they depend upon the

people who do.


If you do a word search on H2G2 and enter the word "stupidity"

you will find that I apparently use the word in titles

and essays more than anyone else.

I don't know if this is a cultural thing or a mental problem.

I have done a lot of stupid things. I try to reduce the number

every year.

I have experienced a lot of stupid actions from other people.

Not much I can do about reducing that short of starting my

own country and having the border patrol filter out the stupid.


But stupidity is not just a silly human trait, it is actually

an ideology, a way of life. It has it's own culture. It has a history,

a science, even a music.

All it needs is it's own flag.

Or it's own boundaries.


The cure for stupidity, if I might dream so big,

is not IQ tests, because some of those are very stupid,

but letting people do what they do best, and not asking them

to do things that they are not qualified for.

Stupidity thrives best in an environment of mediocrity.

Which means that it would be a good idea to turn off the

telly and ignore the papers.