The Intellectual Is A Blithering Idiot

If a man is dumb

And claims not to be smart,

Since he claims nothing

He cannot be called an idiot.

 

The intellectual

Considers himself smart.

 

He believes that his knowledge

Makes him unique.

 

Yet virtually all of his so-called knowledge

Has been gathered from other sources.

 

And the sources from which he gathered it

Likely gathered it

From other sources.

 

What intellectuals call knowledge

Is nepotistic regurgitation.

 

If a bit of his knowledge

Is original,

Then this originality

Does make him unique.

 

And if he utilizes this uniqueness

To get by in the world

More power to him.

For he deserves

What he accomplishes.

 

But intellectuals

Are rarely original.

They simply adore

Sounding smart.

 

This is how they,

In their own minds,

Differentiate themselves from others.

 

It is wise indeed

To differentiate oneself from others.

 

But if the differentiation

Is based upon something that another can easily do

But has chosen not to,

It is a differentiation based solely upon a simple action.

Rather than a differentiation

Of an innate or qualitative nature.

 

An intellectual has read more books

Than another.

If the other CHOSE to read the books also

He would know as much as the intellectual.

 

But just because the intellectual decided to read them

And the other person does not

Does not make the intellectual unique.

 

For then there is but a hair’s bit of difference

Between the two.

 

Any idiot can read a book.

Any idiot can memorize fancy quotes.

 

What intelligence does it take

To read the works of someone else?

 

The main reason that an intellectual

Is an idiot

Is because he does not recognize the fact

That his knowledge has only mechanical relevance.

 

Ecology.

Anthropology.

Astronomy.

Evolution.

Neuroscience.

And so on . . .

 

These are some typical fodder

For the intellectual.

 

Do such things benefit human beings?

They do.

 

In the same way

That a toothbrush benefits human beings.

 

In the same way

That a cup that holds water benefits human beings.

 

In the same way

That a refrigerator benefits human beings.

 

Comfort.

Convenience.

Mechanics.

Philosophy.

These are what the intellectual enjoys.

 

The intellectual knows a lot

About nonsensical things.

 

He is a garbage collector.

The more garbage he packs into his head

The more he can spout.

 

He may become offended

And say that things such as evolution

And energy conservation

And sustainability

Are not nonsensical things.

 

Firstly,

He will resort to such important-sounding things,

Even though much of his time and talk

Is spent on far more pedestrian jibber jabber than this.

 

But the fact is,

All such things,

No matter how lovely they sound,

Are nonsensical.

 

It does not matter

If a man does not have a smartphone.

 

It does not matter

What a man has learned about the biosphere.

 

It does not matter

If the theory of evolution is verified or not.

 

It does not matter

If the latest technological gadget,

Or latest wiz-bang this or that

Is invented.

 

It does not even matter

If there is sustainability

Or any such self-important nonsense.

 

Nothing matters

UNTIL . . .

A human has ended his suffering.

 

So long as the human suffers,

And suffers endlessly,

The intellectual will be an idiot.

And all of his nonsense

Belongs in the garbage bin.

 

Are the various technological advances

That man has created

Impressive feats?

 

They certainly are.

Humans are incredibly resourceful

And creative creatures.

 

However . . .

 

Humans love to Avoid.

Humans love to Hide.

 

The intellectual avoids

His suffering.

And camouflages it with fancy rhetoric

And scientific hoo-haa’s,

And “stoicism.”

 

What a blithering idiot he is.

 

Unless a man’s suffering

Has been tamed,

Nothing else in his life matters.

 

The idiot intellectual

Loves to speak of “life extension.”

 

Does he ever stop his babbling for a minute

To ask himself

Why he wishes to extend a life

That is filled with suffering?

 

What a blithering idiot he is.

 

He cannot tackle

Life’s most immediate,

Most acute,

Most basic,

Most elementary,

Most fundamental problem . . .

So he conveniently avoids it.

 

A smartphone

Held by the stiff hand of a corpse

Whose body and mind

Is wrought with suffering.

 

What a blithering idiot he is.

 

 

Namaste.