What is the origin of stupidity?
Where does it come from?
Yes, where from? As a matter of fact it should not exist. Yes, as a matter of fact... But it does exist. And it's fine, really fine. While it shouldn't. It seems stupidity gives us less chances in the evolution race. The more stupid someone is, the slower. The more stupid a creature is, the less chances to survive it has, because it will be taken over by more wise creatures, or at least less stupid. So, stupidity is not worth your while. Meaning: should not worth your while. Idiots and fools should not exist. But they do.
This would mean, that stupidity is worth our while and in the evolution race it is not a looser. It even does not draw. The odds are it is a winner. Fools are much more numerous than sages. Fools can be met everywhere. Sages must be looked for. A well known proverb says: fools are not sown – they grow by themselves.
Sayings and proverbs are considered to contain wisdom of the people. It seems this conviction goes too far, for it is really easy to find sayings and proverbs which contain very little wisdom, or even no wisdom at all. It can happen that when they were created they were not stupid at all and they described the reality really well, they have become stupid later, the reality changed long time ago while they did not and keep describing things and situation which don't exist now, but people keep thinking that nothing has changed and they are astonished that the world does not fit to the sayings and proverbs. The one quoted above is not stupid. It indicates one very important feature of stupidity, namely autogenesis.
So, we are born stupid. We live stupid. We die stupid. To be stupid we need no effort, no work is required. We are not born wise. Stupid we are at once, wise we become. It means: we can be wise only if we make huge effort, if we work a lot. Nevertheless we must remember, that even if we become wise, we do not stop to be stupid. The wisdom we achieved is a kind of interface covering innate stupidity. And we can't help it. This innate stupidity can not be erased, deleted, or removed surgically.
It's interesting: for centuries philosophers have been arguing about whether a man is good or bad or neutral by nature. The philosophers have never been arguing about whether a man is stupid or wise by nature. The idea of blank slate, tabula rasa, would prefer to say we are born neutral, neither stupid nor wise; being born we begin the long process of getting wise or/and stupid, depending on experiences and knowledge we collect and gather, what we learn and study, what we don't learn and study, what will be written on this tablet. However, isn't knowing-nothing, or being-blank-slate, a manifestation of stupidity? It's not so clear. The tabula rasa hypothesis said nothing about it trying to avoid this trap smartly. Unfortunately, this hypothesis, though fascinating, turned out to be wrong. Or it should be modified: we are born as a tablet entirely filled with writing, but covered tightly, thus creating the appearance of being blank. During our life we don't write on this tablet, we just uncover it gradually. Or the tablet is filled partially. Then we both uncover it and have an opportunity to write something on it.... Anyway, maybe it would be better if this tablet, if it is, is blank and stays blank, because things written on it usually are not nice and optimistic.
If all creatures appearing in the world are stupid, and only a few ones are wise, if stupidity is given to us while wisdom has to be achieved, it means that stupidity permeates the entire world. The Universe is simply stupid. The Nature is stupid. So, it's hard to expect that we, the true children of this Nature, will be wise by nature, will be born wise, as sages.
With no doubt we are the true children of Nature. Any Culture (which is a true child of Nature, too) will not help us. Denying this, rejecting this, maintaining we are beyond Nature, coming from beyond Nature, is but magnificent manifestation of our stupidity.
To find that the world is stupid, we don't need to read comments in the Internet, nor to switch on a TV set. It's enough to look through the window. The madness and follies of the world can make us dizzy.
Can the equal sign be put between madness and stupidity? A very interesting question, which can be a very interesting topic of the next lecture (and researches as well).
If the world is stupid, or mad, or mad-and-stupid, we should ask at once: why is the world stupid? why isn't the world wise? because the wise world will be lost at once, will not be able to exist? If so, then choosing stupidity as the main strategy will be the act of real and true wisdom. Really?
Maybe we, being stupid, can notice but stupidity of the world, while its wisdom is hidden for us? Maybe stupidity is the bright, visible matter-energy which is only a small part of the whole universe, while wisdom is the dark, invisible matter-energy which is the rest of it?
If it were so, isn't it stupid to hide wisdom?

But first of all the fundamental question should be answered:
stupidity – what is it?
As long as we don't answer it, all further consideration (I'm afraid that the above ones, too) should be considered rash, rather senseless, gosh! truly stupid.


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