The Virtue of Stupidity
Risking Awkwardness in an Upright (Uptight) Culture
By
Rev. Dr. Todd F. Eklof
March 4, 2012
Human beings might well be defined as “the peculiar hominids that walk
upright.” Our posture and position is part of what defines us. Perhaps this is also
part of the reason we feel so superior to other creatures, especially to our knuckle
dragging cousins. Maybe it’s why so many reject the idea of evolution. “Nobody is
going to make a monkey out of me!” Despite the fact the very word, human, means
“Earth,” and shares the same root as humus and humility, we consider ourselves an
upright creature and are loath to humiliate ourselves by bending, bowing, or
stooping, especially in public. We have wrists, ankles, elbows, hips, and knees, all of
which make us extremely flexible and able to bend down low, even to prostrate
ourselves completely, but we are loath to do so, loath to let others see us in anything
but our rigid upright, uptight position. We even have a name for those who aren’t as
rigid and upright as the rest of us—stupid!
Take the Occupy Wall Street protestors, for example. I think it’s fair to say
most of them are a little bit “bent-out-of-shape” about the way things are going
these days, and they’re out there demonstrating an alternative position to that of the
status quo. It should be little wonder then that Rush Limbaugh, who has an
extremely rigid understanding of what is right, refers to them as “compliant, smug,
stupid idiots.”1 It’s a word that many others also use in this way, to describe those
who take different positions than their own. This seems to have been its usage by
Donald Trump, for instance, last April when he told a Las Vegas crowd, “Our leaders
are stupid. They are stupid people.” Those with such rigid notions of what is right,
and, subsequently, what it means to be upright, often use this term to belittle those
with whom they differ.
I myself have been the subject of such characterization. Yes, as hard as it is to
believe, even I have been called, “stupid.” In October of 2005 I received an
unaddressed anonymous letter stating:
It is great to live in a country where you have the freedom to demonstrate
how little you understand the world. You can freely demonstrate your
stupidity and not be subject to Government interference.
Since you have demonstrated your stupidity and lack of understanding, I feel
you should be rewarded with your own sign. So, in the words of a wellknown comedian, “Here’s your sign.”
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http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201110140013
The Virtue of Stupidity
The letter was accompanied by a sign reading, “I Am Stupid,” in big bold
letters. I know there are those who think such a letter, being unsigned, ought to be
disregarded as no more than a mere act of cowardice. But, being one who looks
more deeply into the meaning and origin of words than most, I consider both the
letter and the sign a random act of kindness offered by some benevolent sage
honoring me for so freely demonstrating how little I understand of the world, that is,
for publically demonstrating my stupidity. And since this bashful benefactor did not
praise me fore any specific act of stupidity, I presume it refers to my general practice
and mastery of this grand virtue.
Of course it’s easy to sometimes confuse the meanings of certain words,
which is why we often use stupid synonymously with dumb and ignorant and, thus,
take it as an insult. But each of these words has a specific meaning. The word dumb,
for instance, is an Old English term that means, “silent,” or “unable to speak.”
Although we tend to use in reference to feeble-mindedness, its root, dheu, as in
“dust,” actually means cloud or mist. So a dumb state of mind is literally a “mystical”
state of mind. This is why we sometimes say we are “dumbstruck” or “dumfounded”
when we find ourselves speechless before something mysterious, something
indescribable or awesome. It is the state of not knowing, and, thus, not knowing
what to say, and, therefore, being wise enough to say nothing.
So, rather than considering this word an insult, dumb might well be a sign of
wisdom. As the old Hebrew proverb puts it, “Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps
silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.”2 The Tao te Ching says, “the Master
teaches without saying anything.”3 Zen Buddhism teaches us that, “Those who know
do not speak.” Gandhi said, “In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a
clearer light.” Henry David Thoreau said, “Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel
to all dull discourses and all foolish acts.” The aging American poet, W.S Merwin
says, “Now all my teachers are dead except silence.” Theologian, Walter Bauer said,
“The Arctic expresses the sum of all wisdom: Silence.” And, the great American
author Emily Dickenson wrote, “Saying nothing… sometimes says the most.” So, to
call someone “dumb” ought not be considered an insult, but a compliment to one’s
intelligence. As Einstein, one of the most intelligent people ever to have lived, said,
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all
true art and all science. [One] to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer
pause to stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.”
The real question is why our culture continues to take positive virtues and
turn them on their head by making insults out of them? What does it say of a society
that twists compliments into insults, praise into ridicule, and virtue into sin? I first
realized this is the case when I notice how often our society condemns people for
loving others. In the past, those who stood against slavery were called,
“sympathizers.” During the 1960’s and 70’s Whites who supported Civil Rights and
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Proverbs 17:28.
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The Virtue of Stupidity
Equality were, disgustingly, called, N-lovers. Today, those who care about social
issues are called, “bleeding hearts,” environmentalists are called, “tree huggers,” and
those in the GBLT community are denied equal rights for doing exactly what Jesus
commanded his followers to do, “Love one another.” So loving and sympathizing
with others has become something we ought to be ashamed of, where as hate and
discrimination is a norm we’re supposed to uphold as upright citizens.
Now I’m realizing it’s the same with thinking and questioning, and with
speaking freely and honestly. To think, question, or counter the status quo in any
way subjects us to the possibility of ridicule, shame, and oppression, even though
we’re supposed to be living in a country that values freedom as its highest principle.
I don’t get it. How is it that a brave young lady who merely testifies before Congress
about contraceptive rights is suddenly vilified and called names too despicable to
repeat? When Rush Limbaugh used his powerful bully pulpit to attack the good
name and character of Sandra Fluke this week, simply because he disagreed with
her position, he did so to every woman in the world, to our mothers and daughters,
wives, partners, and sisters, and he did so with impunity because, in our culture,
morality has been flipped on its head. In our country it’s okay to hate and demonize
those with whom we disagree, those who take any position other than our own
rigid, unforgiving, militant posture.
And so we feel justified in crushing those who actually exert their First
Amendment right to speak freely by calling them, “dumb,” even though dumb is
really the opposite of speech, free or otherwise. But such name-calling is really an
attempt to silence their subjects, to humiliate them to the point that they become
too embarrassed and too afraid to speak, or, in order to convince others that what
they have to say isn’t worthy of our attention. Attention!
Alas, the only way to counter this tragic state of affairs is to practice the
Virtue of Stupidity. Unlike being dumb, or dumbstruck, which is the mystical state of
being wise enough to say nothing when we don’t know what to say—an experience I
pray Rush Limbaugh might one day be blessed with—there is an intentionality to
stupidity. In other words, dumb is something that happens to us, where as stupidity
takes effort. We can’t help being dumb, but stupidity takes practice. Being dumb is a
blessing, and stupidity, a discipline.
To understand where I’m going with this play-on-words, or, perhaps, this
literalization of words, and why I consider stupidity a virtue that requires practice
and intention, it’s first necessary to grasp the etymology of the word stupid, just as
we have done with dumb. Like it sounds, stupid is related to the word stoop, which
means, “to bend over,” or “bend low.” It connotes the very opposite of standing erect
and being at attention. It is the act of bending, bowing, or prostrating ourselves. It is
the ability to humble ourselves, to openly admit, “I don’t know,” in an otherwise
upright, uptight, know-it-all, loud mouth culture. We may take this position out of
respect for that which has left us dumbstruck and in awe, but we are more likely to
stoop out of genuine curiosity, bending and lowering ourselves in order to more
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The Virtue of Stupidity
closely inspect the object of our curiosity. So stupidity, in short, is an act of curiosity
and questioning. It mirrors the physical ability to make use of our wrists, ankles,
hips, elbows and knees, by reflecting a flexible, humble, and curious mind.
Whereas even a fool may be thought of as wise if he just keeps silent,
stupidity openly calls attention to itself by adopting an awkward position for all to
see. This is why I’ve always taught my children to pay no attention when they hear
there’s no such thing as a stupid question. For every legitimate question is stupid. To
ask any genuine question is an admission, “I don’t know all the answers.” But it is
also a quest to find the answers. And we can’t begin such a quest if we don’t realize
there’s a question to begin with.
But, again, in our upright culture, questioning the authorities is frowned
upon, to say the least. It’s another example of our upside down ethic. We equate
being upright with being right, and being right with having all the answers, and
having all the answers with not asking stupid questions. We equate intelligence with
having a lot of answers, rather than with having a lot of questions. In mysticism,
however, particularly in Eastern mysticism, the goal isn’t to stuff our heads full of
answers, but to empty them of all answers. In Eastern mysticism, becoming
dumbfounded is the goal, which can only be achieved through the practice of
stupidity. In the West mindlessness is an insult, in the East it is nirvana.
Those who have dabbled just a little into Zen Buddhism might call this lack of
preconceptions and the openness that follows, “beginner’s mind.” Alan Watts,
author of the classic book, The Way of Zen, referred to it as wu-hsin.4 Perhaps you’ve
heard of wu-wei, “not doing,” or, more precisely, “doing without doing.” Wu-hsin
similarly means, “no-mind,” or, if you will, “knowing without knowing.” It is, in short,
a word meaning, “mindless.” This is what the Tao te Ching means when it says, “The
ancient Masters didn’t try to educate people, but kindly taught them to not-know.
When they think they know the answers, people are difficult to guide. When they
know that they don’t know, people can find their own way.”5 So this dheu, this mist,
this dumbness is, as St. John of the Cross said, “the dark cloud that bring light to the
night. And whoever has this light always remains not knowing.”6
Unfortunately, this is not merely an exercise in esoteric philosophy. How we
approach knowledge can have a profound impact on the entire planet. Just this week
we had two F-4 tornadoes touch down on different days, a category so rare that
when the F-scale was established in 1971, it was thought to occur only 1.1 percent
of the time. The increasing number of monster storms, tornadoes and hurricanes, is
additional proof of the alarming reality of Global Warming and its subsequent
climate change. Despite such devastating evidence, however, there are still far too
Watts, Alan W., The Way of Zen, Vintage Books, New York, NY, 1957, p. 24.
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6 de Nicolas, Antonio T., St John of the Cross: Alchemist of the Soul, Paragon House, New York,
NY, 1989
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The Virtue of Stupidity
many people who deny it’s even happening, people whose minds have already been
made up, people who choose to ignore what is right in front of them. So a society’s
approach to knowledge and understanding can have very real and far-reaching
implications.
This is why I consider ignorance to be the only true insult when it comes to
how we think. For it is the opposite of both dumb and stupid. If being dumb means
having the wisdom to remain silent when we don’t know what to say, ignorance is
the act of speaking when we don’t know what we’re talking about. Rush Limbaugh’s
crude statements about Sandra Fluke this week were ignorant because he said them
without any knowledge of her personal life or character. And if stupidity is an
intentional act of humbling ourselves before mystery in the hope of gaining more
understanding, ignorance is the intentional act of turning away from what’s right in
front of us, pretending we don’t see what is glaringly obvious, like Global Warming.
Oddly enough, religion, unlike mysticism, is often just the excuse we need for
believing whatever the hell we damn well please despite the evidence. In mistaking
such ignorance as faith, we are even encouraged to ignore what’s right in front of us.
Taking up the “shield of faith,” in this sense, is like intentionally putting on
blinders—Monkey see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. But there are still many
gems found, even in the Christian scriptures, that more than allude to wu-hsin, the
virtue of stupidity.
There’s a wonderful line in I Peter, for example, that talks about the dealings
between God and humanity as “things in which angels long to look.” 7 The Greek
word translated here as “long to look,” , is more literally translated “to
stoop around” or “to bend over.” If you can imagine a group of curious angels
gathering around humanity and bending over to inspect us, like a curious child
looking at a mound of ants, then you understand the imagery of , “things
angels stoop over,”—stupid cupids! This relatively rare word is used only three
other times in the Christian Scriptures, once in the Letter of James,8 once in the
Gospel of Luke,9 and once in the Gospel of John.10 In James it’s used in reference to
those who “look into” God’s law, or “stoop over” God’s law, and the other two refer
to those who “looked into” Jesus’ empty tomb. I wonder what religion might look
like in our culture if it were more often looked at from this stupid position,
, from a position of seeking rather than knowing. Similarly, in Islam, the
word mosque means, “place of prostration,” suggesting it is our ability to bend and
lower ourselves that puts us in the best religious position.
So we have these three ways of looking at things, through ignorance,
dumbness, and stupidity. And the only one of these that is ever an insult, as far as I’m
I Peter 1:12.
James 1:25.
9 Luke 24:12.
10 John 20:5.
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The Virtue of Stupidity
concerned, is the first, ignorance, because it has a tragic quality. Dumbness, by
contrast, is a mystical state of mind we can only hope to experience. Yet we can
strive to do so through the practice of stupidity, the practice of questioning our
preconceptions, of openly stooping down low before life’s wonders and mysteries,
through wu-hsin, mindlessness. Socrates said, “I am the wisest man alive, for I know
one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” And, Victor Weisskopf, of Manhattan
Project fame, once said of his mentor, the great quantum physicist, Wolfgang Pauli,
“You could ask him anything. There was no worry that he would think a particular
question was stupid, since he thought all questions stupid.”11 I quite agree. So this is
one of those rare occasions I must bow to the experts.
11
In The American Journal of Physics (1977).
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