:: meanders ::

:: Stupidity
Oddly enough, the very last entry, from August 1st, dealt with just this concept: stupidity. My meanders on the internet are often serendiptitious, bringing me to a place that synchronizes with my current fancies. It was while researching anchors and dolphins, fortuitously combined in Aldus Manutius' printer's mark, that I found festina lente, which Giancarlo Livraghi suggests as a motto for web designers. It means "hurry slowly" and combines the speed of the dolphin with the gravitas of the anchor. I've done a small share of publishing print and internet and festina lente will remain with me, particularly as I clean up dead links! But I digress Mr. Livraghi writes lightly and with much pleasure and so I was moved to explore more of his work. I found his series The Power of Stupidity, which is brilliant. Not only has Mr. Livraghi taken the time to write three articles on this subject, but he tells us that someone back in the 1930s wrote a 300+ page book on just that subject. Amazing, isn't it? In Part Two, he presents three of his own corollaries, the first of which is

In each of us there is a factor of stupidity, which is always larger than we suppose

As a meditator, I am witness to this on a daily basis. I have a long way to go towards wisdom. I see the Second Corollary in action every day:

When the stupidity of one person combines with the stupidity of others, the impact grows geometrically � i.e. by multiplication, not addition, of the individual stupidity factors

Hanging around on the internet with futures traders, a really cynical bunch for the most part, is a window into the compounding effect. Cynical and smart, but too often, overly prone towards attrituting events to market maniupulations or conspiracies by "the Illuminati" or other such hidden hands. Even if partially or occasionallly true, underlying it all is stupidity. No doubt. Which very tidily brings one to Mr. Livraghi's Part Three: The Stupidity of Power , which I wager is more at work than vast conspiracies. Personal responsibility in the face of stupidity requires a powerful leap, infrequently taken by most. Codifying stupidity does make la comedie humain easier to simply witness dispassionately and thereby avoid growing grey,frazzled, or sour. If I take any exception to his article, it is to only to one comment made in Part Two: that "there is no such thing as 'absolute' ". This concept is not only dangerous, it is one whose popularity has grown under the influence of basic stupidity and continues to compounded through the action of the second Livraghi corollary. The dangerous part I'll set aside for another meander. Instead, let me show a simple example of absolutes. In the most basic physical principle of actio-reactio, a pendulum swings from one extreme to the other, ie, from one absolute through a gradation of possibilities along its swing to the other extreme. This one manifestation can be seen and verified by children and adults and by observation of their reactions to extreme stimuli, animals, insects, and plants. It is mirrored throughout nature and human behavior and demonstrates that absolutes do exist. Further observation shows, however, that those extremes do not persist, especially under the influence of gravitas, leading impatient observers to conclude they do not exist. However, lack of persistence is not lack of existence. Absolutes are the quarks of the philosophical world.