Nerenberg is interested in the study of stupidity and its causes so that we may choose another route and pursue wisdom instead. For all the studies on intelligence and wisdom, according to Nerenberg the study of stupidity is quite paltry in comparison. Is stupidity so stupefying that even the best minds find it beyond their capability to study? Or are we so arrogant as to consider human stupidity unworthy of our serious study? Either way, we have proven over the millennia that human stupidity is recurrent and seemingly boundless. It is neither a laughing matter nor is “Stupid!” merely an epithet to hurl at someone with whom we disagree. I’m sure that each one of us can admirably demonstrate stupidity in our own lives.

In the 1970′s Carlo M. Cipolla circulated an essay, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. In 1987, The Whole Earth Review republished the essay with pictures and titled it The Fundamental Laws of Human Stupidity. Due to copyright rules I cannot reproduce this article but it is easily located via google and the specific laws are listed in the wikipedia link that I have provided for Dr. Cipolla. That said, Cipolla’s definition of a stupid person is of interest. “A person is stupid if they cause damage to another person or group of people without experiencing personal gain, or even worse causing damage to themselves in the process.” Why are we consistently willing to do damage to ourselves and others?

Although I don’t think that I have THE answer, I do have one possible answer. It is a matter of lack of awareness and fear. So many times I have done stupid things by not paying attention. For example, by forgetting to a pay a bill on time, I have had to pay an extra fee to compensate for my tardiness. Not only have I made the person who provided me a service wait for their reimbursement, I have unnecessarily paid extra. This is a small example of stupidity. A much larger example of stupidity is that for a long time I was in denial about our environment. I drove unnecessarily and didn’t think much about sustainability. I told myself that the impact of my actions was minuscule and couldn’t possibly make a difference. However, I recently realized that if large numbers of people felt and acted the same way that I did, such behavior would have large and likely irreparable effects on our climate and other environmental necessities.

Fear is also a great motivator in inflicting damage on others and thus on ourselves. Violence is often a desperate response that yields damage to both self and others. Those whom we fear and distance ourselves from often then become targets of our direct and projected violence. Were we able to practice connection and caring rather than fear, violence might well be averted.

One last cause of stupidity is overwhelm. We are constantly bombarded with information. It is impossible not to feel overwhelmed at times. In an effort to steel ourselves against any more information overload we withdraw and choose not to pay attention. There are so many things requiring our attention that are worthwhile. How do we best choose? My guess is that those pieces of information that fully honor our values (as opposed to our opinions) are the ones that require our attention. We must be thoughtful and deliberate in our choices. Information that both honors our feelings and challenges our ideas will help increase our wisdom.

Stupidity lives in everyone. It is not just a symptom of low intelligence. In fact, it is not related to intelligence at all. We’ve all seen very intelligent people behave stupidly. It is about awareness, caring and noticing one’s impact on oneself and others. We can do all of ourselves a favor by staying open and aware of our own acts of stupidity. Western society encourages stuporous behavior. We deserve better than this. Wake up and pay attention. Notice your impact and help others to notice theirs. With awareness we can then cultivate wisdom rather than stupidity.

What situations are likely to cause you to harm yourself and others?

What is your relationship with stupidity?

Where do you become stuporous and act stupidly?

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Her latest blog post tells about a recent One Second Installation. She and her crew brought a steel hospital table and a body bag to the Surf Club one evening. At the Surf Club she offered people the opportunity to be zipped into the body bag by their friends. Although everyone was interested, nobody volunteered. So she waited. Two hours later after the crowd had some drinks at the bar people started to volunteer. There was nervous laughter as people repeatedly made sure that their friends would unzip them after a second in the bag. An hour later, fortified by even more alcohol, people were having a good time being zipped in the bag and then unzipped. Alison was afraid that the point of the exercise was being lost. This was not supposed to be a fun event. Rather it was supposed to be a wake up call about 1) what it feels like to be in a body bag 2) trusting one’s friends 3) consciously making choices.

Four hours after the start of the installation, someone went too far. He zipped his friend in the bag and refused to unzip him. The person in the bag protested but this only made the crowd laugh. The combination of alcohol and laughter only strengthened the friend’s decision to keep the bag zipped. Suddenly, this was no longer a humorous event. The person in the body bag was truly panicked. Finally the friend relented. The person in the bag emerged saying, “You can’t screw with people’s lives like that – It’s not f***ing funny!”

So often we make spur of the moment, unthinking decisions that cause other people pain or fear or some amount of suffering. We don’t need to have alcohol to dull our awareness although alcohol certainly will do so. When our awareness is absent so are our senses of efficacy and power diminished. We treat ourselves as so much less than we truly are. However, if each of us were to just spend one second consciously considering our impact in the moment imagine what could change. Perhaps a friend would refuse to allow another friend who is intoxicated to drive. Perhaps, instead of taking a paper bag at the store, you brought your cloth bag to transport your groceries. Perhaps upon hearing some negative gossip, you chose not to pass it on. Maybe just because you are satisfied with your health coverage, you could imagine what it is like for someone who is ill and uninsured. The list of possibilities is endless. Just imagine if we all took one more second to contemplate our impact in the world at any given moment, what might be possible? What impact could our collective moments of consciousness have? It’s your choice. Wake up to this moment right now! It’s yours. Make it count in the way that you truly desire.

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True freedom for me is freedom from my obsessive self-castigating thoughts. My mind produces thousands of these thoughts each day. Mindfulness is the larger container that allows me to notice them and not become one with any single one of them. I’m not often successful in remaining unattached to individual thoughts. They are so inviting, with their magnetic pull toward a seemingly stable identity of me as an insufficient, narcissistic and selfish person. In those moments of ego identification with those thoughts I’m steadfastly not cognizant of any of my altruistic and generous thoughts or actions. I hate myself for not living up to my own ideals and even worse for hurting others by my own insistence on any thought or action that could relate to my own well being.

As I wrote that sentence I became aware yet again that I have a mistaken belief that my own well being necessarily hurts others. When I am attached to that thought I am neither free nor operating in a reasonable reality. We all have crazy thoughts like this or others that seem real and reasonable to us in the moment which upon further reflection become ridiculous and extreme. Freedom is dependent upon awareness. Awareness is necessary in order to make choices. When we are not aware of our automatic thoughts and actions we give up a measure of freedom. When we have a bigger container in which to hold our thoughts awareness, at least for me, becomes a bit easier.

Although July 4th and the Declaration of Independence is celebrated here in the United States to commemorate our independence from England 233 years ago, today I am using it as a structure to remind me that who I am is independent of any thought (whether good or bad) that my ego submits to identify me with something that seems to be myself. It is scary to have nothing to hold on to. And yet, somewhere deep in a place beyond words, I can experience a quality of ecstasy knowing that I am nothing (no thing). I am a bigger container than any one thing. And if I can expand my awareness to encompass the biggest container possible, I am everything.

And so I have arrived back at my favorite place: the inherent paradox of life. I am no-thing and every-thing. I am independent, dependent and most assuredly interdependent. I am celebrating my own personal freedom today by consciously choosing “a bigger container.” This container is big enough for me and you and all who live and breathe on this planet. It’s not easy. My thoughts often take up more space than I like but when I live in my heart I know that there is room enough for us all. Happy July 4th!

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Whenever any star permanently exits the stage of life, I feel a great loss. However, if I am truly honest, I also feel angry. Their absence leaves a hole that demands to be filled. This hole always reminds me that I can no longer lean back and let another do the work while I laze around in the background.

I could stop my exploration of my feelings here at anger. Certainly, most people would validate my awareness of my anger and compliment me on being so forthright. However, my anger is covering up something much more powerful. It is my excitement. I’m excited and I am fully alive when I act.

I don’t need a professional stage nor a paid audience to act. Acting is about awareness. It is about taking the stage with intention, being fully in my character and then acting in concert with the other players in the scene. Boal taught me that the world IS my stage and my audience is always awaiting and welcoming my appearance.

Boal lived his life with a fierce commitment to freedom, dignity and expression. He believed in the exquisite knowledge and power of people to act and direct their own lives toward the good. He founded The Theatre of the Oppressed in Brazil in 1971. His work traveled rapidly around the world. In The Theatre of the Oppressed people play and learn together. It is a game of dialog. To quote Boal, “We believe in Peace, not Passivity!”

Boal’s death is my cue to enter. He always exhorted people to “come closer”. I am now coming closer to you and thus to me. Act in Peace, Augusto! Bravo!

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I have been thinking a lot about greed these days. In a culture that prizes things over people, it is not surprising that greed is running rampant. However, like Buddhism’s Hungry Ghosts who are filled with unquenchable hunger and whose tiny necks are too small to let any nourishment into their huge stomachs, our greed precludes satiation. Like the junk food we mindlessly eat all day, the food that arrives in our bellies leaves us malnourished and craving more.

Greed is seductive, beckoning you into “the safe”, it then locks the door leaving you with no strategy or nor way to exit without help from someone else. The person whom greed hurts the most is you (or me when I am in its thrall). It separates us from others and diverts us from our own desire for true happiness.

One powerful antidote to greed is curiosity. What am I hungry for? What is it that I most crave in the moment? How much money do I really need to be happy right now? Will a million dollars open my heart or I am just chasing after a seductive illusion? How satisfying is it to cuddle with my money or material things rather than another human being?

This post is not a diatribe against wealth or materialism. It’s a plea for consciousness and for being aware of our own impact. We are all greedy at times. Greedy people are not mean (although we can be) or stupid (although some are). Mostly we are stuporous. We are unaware of the cause of our starvation and insensitive to the needs of others. Material wealth is neither inherently good or evil. It’s what we do with it and whether we equitably distribute it. When a select few hoard the majority of resources for themselves, I believe that we all have to rethink our priorities. Each one of us needs to wake up and see how far we’ve crawled into the safe. Otherwise, what looks like safety will be a one way ticket to our own black hole with no one else to rescue us.

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