The hard truth – Running out of adjectives…and patience

23rd April 2012 · 0 Comments

By Min. J. Kojo Livingston
Contributing Columnist

Some of you may have noticed lately the overuse of certain terms, especially dumb, evil and most of all “stupid” in my columns.

My supporters may find comfort in the fact that this excessive employment of certain verbal expressions is indeed, deliberate. It does not reflect an exhaustion of my lexicon.

It’s just that there is so much dangerously stupid policy, behavior and thought being promoted today that I believe we really need to stop dignifying it with flowery language. The terms stupid and evil accurately reflect what is happening today, but only if you add “dangerous” to them.

I have no allegiance to a dead slave master named Daniel Webster, but a white man’s definitions of a white man’s language can have some use. “Unintelligent,” “unreasoning,” and even “brutish” are terms you will find if you look the word up. In my world it can also be when you know or have evidence that what you are going do won’t work and you do it anyway.

Here are just a few of the practices that I believe qualify as dangerously stupid. They not only don’t make sense, they bring harm to people on a massive scale.
• Having a state board of education or local school board comprising mostly people who a.) have never been educators and b.) have no children in public schools who will be affected by their policies
• Leaving classroom teachers out of discussions on education policy because you believe they are the enemy of education
• Implementing high-stakes testing against the counsel of every major education research and professional body on earth
• Pouring millions of tons of poison each day into the air we breathe, the water we drink and the ground we grow food in
• Bankrupting state and national economies by giving very rich people tax breaks and cutting programs that promote the common good
• Spending more money on incarceration than on education
• Spending more money on war than on anything else
• Starting unprovoked wars
• Telling police officers that they can beat and kill innocent, unarmed people without facing consequences
• Building enough nuclear weapons to theoretically destroy the face of the planet one lives on
• Declaring that no one else but you and your allies have a right to possess nuclear weapons
• Spending untold billions to spy on and control every single person in a supposedly “free” nation
• Allowing the food, prison, hospital, oil, banking and other industries to dictate to lawmakers (through open bribery) the conditions for their own accountability
• Allowing these industries to push laws that increase incarceration, allow harmful foods, outlaw natural remedies, and encourage economic predatory behavior toward the public

This brings up the question of motive. Lots of stupid things get done for political, emotional, social, and we don’t even want to start on religious-based idiocy. Cowardice and fear lead to stupid decisions because most extreme emotions seem to impair the reasoning process.

When racism is on the table, reason, ethics, morality all go out the window. Dr. Neely Fuller, Jr. said, “If you don’t understand white supremacy – [racism] – what it is, and how it works — everything else that you understand will only confuse you.”

He was right. Racism trumps greed. Racists businesses during Jim Crow would rather not take Black people’s money. Today’s racists justify doing things to Black people that are unacceptable to do to anyone else. When rational people accept or follow a dumb idea, it is due to a philosophical commitment to stupidity as a concept. It’s the Emperor’s New Clothes all over again.

Coming from a guy who stresses speaking/visioning/pursuing what you want vs. declaring what you don’t want, this might seem a bit of a contradiction. However, I believe there are reasonable limits to positive thinking. If your car or body malfunctions, I think it’s pretty dumb to avoid going to a doctor or mechanic. It would be equally stupid to go to a mechanic/doctor and refuse to discuss your symptoms for fear of “giving power” to them. A rational person identifies what is happening and then uses physical, mental and spiritual resources to make it right.

Yes we affect reality with our thoughts and actions but I don’t agree that we are “creating” the world as we go or that everything that happens to you is caused by your mind. I did not “create” my parents after I was born. An abused infant did not visualize or cause the crime against her. Things happen to us all the time that we did not expect or even know were possible. There are surprises and new discoveries, both positive and negative; things that never entered and did not come from your own mind. To deny this is just…well…”devoid of all rational consideration.”

Some think that the people/secret groups/corporations who really run this country have implemented these practices because they are clever. These are all ways to rapidly increase their profits. But what is clever in the short run can be stupid in the long run.

Here’s the real deal. These polices count as stupid for several reasons. They ignore the patterns and cycles of history. Any society that exploits and literally consumes its people falls apart. A dumbed-down society won’t be able to solve complex problems. People eventually get enough and rebel. Second, they ignore morality and spiritual wisdom. The principle of sowing and reaping is more than the babbling of a religious sect. It’s a principle that transcends most spiritual systems and which can be verified by both collective and individual experience.

It’s time to wage war against stupidity. We need to name it, confront it and promote its opposite. We need to shine the light of truth, reason and justice on every aspect of this society where greed, fear and racism have left their excrement in the form of stupid laws, policies, behaviors, and influence.

To continue to allow stupidity to rule just because it seems safe right now would be, well…”an idea emanating from one’s lower intestinal tract…”