If there was ever a moment in my lifetime that called for appropriately executed obscenity, it’s now. This isn’t just an attempt to raise eyebrows, it’s a carefully aimed shot in the jaw.
We’re surrounded by problems caused by stupidity and intensified by fucking obscene stupidity, and I’ve had enough. I’ve tried talking and writing temperately about the challenges we face but that didn’t seem to work. Now people are finally aware of the challenges but still, for the most part, aren’t reacting reasonably or productively.
‘Stupidity’ doesn’t mean simply a lack of brains, it means failure to use the brains we have. It’s laziness, not a lack of ability, and I don’t believe in calling people stupid, stupidity is something that happens, “… the sin, not the sinner.”
‘Fucking Obscene stupidity’ happens when people finally start making an effort and using their brains, but in a way that reinforces or intesifies stupidity, rather than overcoming it.
For example, a person isn’t stupid just because they don’t know how to use a computer, they’re being stupid if they don’t try to learn. Then if they don’t know how to use a computer, don’t try to learn, and actually argue against trying, then they’re being fucking obscenely stupid.
Losing money doesn’t necessarily mean you’re stupid. Knowingly spending more money than you earn is being stupid. Spending more money than you earn, doing it year-after-year, and convincing yourself that things are just going to work out is fucking obscenely stupid.
Unfortunately, fucking obscene stupidity seems to be bred deeply into the cultures of business and politics. The standard response to crisis is first to use salesmanship, manupulation, or outright denial, and then to address merely the symptoms. I can hardly blame individual politicians and executives for failing to address early warning signs and root causes when they’ve been educated and embedded into the fucking obscene stupidity of the whole system.
On the other hand, too many people outside this system — eg. in the media, or in academia, or in the neighbourhood coffee shop – tend to exude just as much fucking obscene stupidity as the powerful organizations individuals they criticise. Outsiders can be so eager to point the finger that they also fail to address root causes with effective actions or ideas.
I’m not being high-and-mighty here. I know I’m not immune. I certainly do plenty of unintelligent things, and I do more than a few stupid things, and yes, I can be fucking obscenely stupid more than I like to admit. But that doesn’t disqualify me from advocating higher standards, working to eliminate stupidity – the failure to use the brains we have — in my personal life and fighting against it in society.
This means asking questions, recognizing and admitting possible mistakes and opportunities for improvement. Constantly taking apart and analysing our ideas and assumptions, making sure they’re still valid and looking for ways to make them more effective.
Look at our global economy. Look at the wars that are ongoing. Look at the cultural changes and technological progress that’s happening. Look at our lifestyles. Look at our principles and values. Look at history. Look at your ideas about the future. Look at the way you look, think, talk, and listen about all of these things…
It isn’t easy, that’s for sure. It won’t immediately make much sense either — in the same way that we don’t know how to use a computer without learning and we can’t buy a house without earning.
Now is not the time to be stupid, nor to let fucking obscene stupidity persist — even if it means offending people in order to fight it.
[Further reading: The New Pragmatist is a much more serious and comprehensive treatment of these ideas. My own response to this post is Youthful Rebellion in Maturity.]
[Update Oct 13: I don't have a problem with it in principle, but it just didn't look good -- the obscenity -- I didn't use enough irony to pull it off. It just looked dirty and made it seem like I have no class. So I changed it to the word 'obscene,' which works just as well in many ways.]
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