I have this extravagant need to document idiocy and people who suffer from this “condition”. Actually, to tell you the truth, I have quite a few notebooks. You never know when they come in handy.
We should all reserve our right to talk about imbecility, to challenge it, to exorcise it, or complain about it. It is neither arrogant nor masochistic, it is simply hygienic.
If each of us would listen to our hearts and sincerely approach one or two sorts of stupidity every day, then we shall live in a better world.
Today I want to talk about “base” players.
There is an enigmatic connection between stupidity and immorality. You knew it, right? And if you did not know it, you must have felt it.
Yes, stupidity often borders on evilness. I am not talking about Myshkin or windmills. I am not talking about those subtle ways of turning morality into a wonderful – yet absolutely necessary – paradox. For more of these, just read Cervantes, Dostoevsky, or the Bible. Or watch Derek on Netflix.
Today I am only talking about that feeble-minded man next door who lacks perspective. And obviously, he has no idea that he lacks it.
So he cheats on his wife over and over again without really intending to harm her; he lies for his own good over and over again without really intending to be dishonest; he is not sophisticatedly evil, but plainly lousy; he cannot place his deeds nowhere in the intricate chain of causes and effects; his notion of „consequence” is distorted, vague, or inexistent.
The imbecile ignores or violates the rules out of imbecility (one may delicately call it unawareness), but also out of disinterest and lack of comprehensiveness. He has what one might call “a simple mind” and so he simply cannot see the point in doing things that contradicts or diminishes his immediate wellbeing.
His non-programmatic approach of life makes him weak as an ant, stupid as a turkey, and abject as a despot. He’s not a “sacred fool” unable to adjust to the versatile rules of society, but a „base player” who plays the way he wants it to play, regardless of how horrific his music sounds. After all, he has no sense of music, just an instinct for rhythm.
We cannot make much of this world without a properly exercised comprehensiveness. And so it happens that kindness is comprehensive, dynamic, and very much aware of itself.
The dialectics of morality is more complicated than astrophysics. And it is not for the feeble-minded. It is an abyssal affair we often get lost in; which only goes to show that we have not quite fallen out of grace.
I will not let the „base” player rule your Sunday. I’m giving you The Bass Player: Ronnie Lane.
(Foto: cnet.com)
