While reading Eric Hoffer's book The Passionate State of Mind, I found the following wonderful, pithy observation:
"The hardest thing in the world to cope with is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity. One needs the talents of an animal trainer to deal with the stupid."
One of the things I've found as I get older is that my level of tolerance for stupidity has greatly decreased, and the overload light on my BS detector spends more time glowing steadily than occasionally flashing. We're all stupid at one time or another (yes, believe it or not, even I have done some stupid things in my time), but it seems lately as if we've managed to raise stupidity to an art form. Consider the following:
* A useless twit like Paris Hilton gets front-page treatment in major newspapers.
* Our senators and representatives stubbornly refuse to make the compromises necessary to pass desperately-needed immigration reform legislation.
* Islamic militants singlehandedly devastate Gaza, Lebanon, and Iraq while glorifying murder and death...and somehow it's our fault.
I could go on, but there's no point in getting overly depressed this early in the morning. If you'll excuse me, I think I'll just pick up my whip and chair and go forth to practice my talents as an animal trainer.
Unfortunately, I'll have plenty of opportunities to practice.
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
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