After having
spent enough time on the internet, I’ve found that probably one of the greatest
of insults one can levy upon another is the accusation that the activity one
engages is in stupid. People will use a
variety of different adjectives and modifiers to convey certain degrees of
stupidity and colorful language is abound, but fundamentally, it always boils
down to “the thing that you do is stupid”.
And people absolutely fly off the handle once this accusation is
unfolded. All sorts of bizarre scenarios
are concocted to explain why it’s necessary to engage in this activity, other
activities are brought into the judgement of the audience as a necessary
compassion of stupidity, the stupidity of the accuser is put into light, etc
etc. Round and round we go attempting to
ensure, above all else, that we walk away KNOWING that the thing we do isn’t
stupid…but why does that even matter?
Most certainly, the thing that you do is stupid.
Especially if you are this guy
I’m of
course going to go nihilistic here, but let’s be honest; what thing to do ISN’T
stupid? Take the million mile view on
this one; the Earth has existed for so much longer than we have, and our
lifespans are so short in comparison it’s not even a blip on the radar. The memory of us MIGHT last a few
generations, and if we’re a really big deal, maybe even a few millennia, but
even THAT isn’t that much. And even if
the memory of us were to last until the end of time, that’s just it; eventually
time WILL end. The imminent heat death
of the universe will occur, the sun will explode, space and time will collapse
in on themselves, something will be divided by zero, Cthulhu will rise, etc
etc. Absolutely nothing we do
matters. Everything we do is
stupid. Trying to justify why what you
do is smart is failing to be at peace with your frail mortality and attempting
to pacify your existential angst of the unknown by some sort of banal notion
that “you” will live on, whether through some sort of religious afterlife or
via memory.
Well that’s
pretty goddamn depressing, so now what?
Here’s the thing; there is some sort of bizarre de facto accepted
argument that, because a thing is stupid, it is not worth doing. This is typically what is implied when one
slings accusations of stupidity at an action; they’re actually trying to say “that
activity is not worth doing [because it is stupid]” rather than just making a
declarative statement of fact. Bullcrap
I say. So many things that are worth
doing are completely and utterly ridiculously stupid.
Although this movie should have never been made
You know
what’s absolutely stupid? Falling in
love. Think about it; you’re really
going to diminish the survival odds of the species by committing yourself to
one single human (or maybe a few if you’re into that I guess) by an emotional
bond? Hell no! The smart play is to get out there, form zero
emotional attachments, mate with as many people as you possibly can through
cold, detached mechanical sex and sire many progeny. And hey; when you form no emotional bonds
with people, that means you won’t ever get hurt by them either. But man, how much of actual LIFE do you miss
out on when you do this really smart thing eh?
And we already established life is short and meaningless, so why not get
the most feelings out of it as possible before it all goes away.
Hobbies? How stupid.
You don’t get paid for hobbies; you PAY for hobbies. You’re really going to go take that money
that you spent time to accumulate and go spend it on hobbies? Way to go genius; now you need to work even
more! Just imagine how much smarter you’d
be if you lived a cold miserable existence devoid of any joy or recreation,
where you simply worked as many hours as possible and lived as meagerly as
possible with no excess. You’d have SO
much more money to spend on…well, nothing really. Crap, sometimes even being smart is pretty
damn stupid.
At least now you'll have time to lift
LIFE exists
in those stupid things we do. It’s when we choose to be stupid that we get to
be human and experience the full range of our incredibly complex psyche. But didn’t I earlier say that life was
meaningless and just a blip and nothing we do matters? Yes I did; which is why you need to quit
taking yourself so goddamn seriously.
Laugh at what you are and acknowledge that, yup, what you’re doing is
stupid. Lifting weights is so incredibly
stupid, getting bigger and stronger is ridiculously stupid, finding other
humans to compete against in contests where you’re measuring who is the biggest
and the strongest is the zenith of stupidity.
Probably the only thing stupider than all of this is engaging in an
argument about whose activity is the REAL stupid one.
This is why
it does not offend me when I am told what I am doing is stupid. I am constantly told by super helpful
internet warriors that the form I use is stupid, my programming is stupid, my
diet is stupid, etc etc. What do I say
in response? “I am a very stupid person”. It robs the conversation of momentum, takes
power from the accuser, and honestly represents the reality of the
situation. I am at peace with the fact
that I am a stupid person doing stupid things.
Who isnt’?
Your absurdist nihilist writings could use some egoism, my dude. Great article!
ReplyDeleteMuch appreciated man!
DeleteYou know what's stupid? Not referencing Weird Al Yankovich's "Dare To Be Stupid" in an article that dares people to be stupid. :)
ReplyDeleteI have been there an done that
Deletehttp://mythicalstrength.blogspot.com/2016/11/dare-to-be-stupid.html
Haha. Still a classic though.
I've got a whole gamut to get through, haha. Gotta appreciate the human side of it all.
DeleteHey man, threatening to divide by zero is no joke don't give the people any ideas.
ReplyDelete