The Age of Stupidity
I
"What was the most important age of humanity, sir?”
“Well, Michael, you know, I don’t think these ‘age’ designations are all that clarifying. Often they distort, and are very inaccurately named. I mean, look at what they referred to as the Age of Enlightenment.”
The group of young people, gathered round their teacher, chuckled politely.
“Now, now, what they tried to call Enlightenment reveals a lot about the causes of their misery. I do think, though, that we can look at the Age of Stupidity, which, of course, included the so-called Age of Enlightenment., for I think it was the most important. As you know, it was renowned for its gullibility and closed-mindedness. We see it starting in the fifteenth century, in Europe, and extending until 2050, although many now see its seeds much earlier in distorted thinkers and rulers. Basically, it is noted for the irrational use of power and money. It –
A hand shot up.
“Yes, Con.”
“Well, sir, I don’t understand how anyone could, well, be so stupid. I mean, is it really true? I don’t understand that time at all! I find it so hard to believe!”
“I know, Con, and that is why I think it is the most important Age. We must understand it and respect the awful power that can be loosed in the world when ignorance and fear wage war against the Human Being. It was an age of mutation
A hand shot up. The teacher raised a forestalling hand.
“I will explain, and I think this will clear up a lot for you. Now, imagine, if you will, that you are told what to think, and you do, to such an extent that you never question and never listen to your own heart and mind.”
The faces looked up, puzzled.
“Okay. Imagine that you only have one arm and one leg –
Chuckles broke out again.
“Do you see, Michael?”
“Yes, I’m really restricted; limited.”
“Precisely. This is what you have to see in order to understand. You have to feel the power of ignorance and fear on the minds and hearts of this Age. In fact, the mind and heart are excluded, just like one leg and one arm are excluded in our example.”
“Do you mean, sir, that these human beings were missing parts we have?”
“No, they weren’t missing them; they never used them. They didn’t believe they existed.”
“How could anything make me believe that I wasn’t all here?” said a small voice. It came from a boy who was on the verge of tears.
Con put her arm around him and said, “sir, maybe we aren’t old enough to understand this stupidity thing. It hurts me too.”
“My dears, we must call upon our compassion as we study this time. I will not go into the extreme aspects of it; it’s not necessary. It was an Age of extremes, one that never found the Noble Middle Way, to which the wise have always pointed. But there’s nothing to be upset about. Look to the billions of lives that endured the Age, and see what sturdy stuff you and all life are made of. Okay?”
All the heads nodded.
“Now, back to the mutation. The idea accepted was that a person was only a body and a brain. They were isolated, alone on earth for a short period of time, and after that they became- nothing. They called it dying.”
A look of horror swept through the children, and the teacher realized he could not inflict the Age of Stupidity on them yet.
“No, you aren’t old enough. I’ll pick my second choice, and we shall look into the Age of Alchemy, an Age of transformation, transcendence and transmutation. An Age of expansion in consciousness for all life on earth.”
A hand shot up.
“Yes, Ali.”
“But sir, everyone couldn’t have been this way. I mean, it’s natural to realize and reflect ourselves as part of the Whole. How could anyone force you to think you are so much less than what you are? And why would they?”
“Very good, Ali.” The teacher thought, and then said, “the Age of Stupidity was a time of upside-down-ness.”
Laughter rang out. The tension built up in the children broke as they all turned somersaults and stood on their heads.
“That’s it,” sang out the teacher, and he joined in.
“I get it! I get it!” screamed a little high-pitched voice.
“What do you get, Piri?” asked the breathless teacher.
“I get that those folks took themselves seriously, and not living life. That’s upside down, isn’t it? And I feel…there wasn’t much laughing.”
“Very good. Now you’re getting it. It’s only through a sense of humor at the absurd that this Age can be observed causally. Con, what do you think?”
“Well, sir, I think, and I feel, that we should proceed now. I understand how to address the natural repulsion to the ideas that ruled the time. I must say, I’ve never grasped the absurd, and this’ll help.”
“Then,” asked the teacher, “will we proceed?”
All heads nodded.
“Then I will ask you why it is important to study the Age of Stupidity, even before we begin to look into it. I ask you this question. I shall leave you now, to confer, and tomorrow we’ll take it up.”
II
The children walked away together quietly. Before they went off in all directions Michael said, “I don’t think I wanna’ look into this by myself. Would you all look into it with me?”
“I was feeling the same way,” smiled Ali. “I’ll be glad to work on this with you.”
“Me too!” chimed the rest.
“Let’s go to the river,” suggested Alice.
And there where the river ran a shallow ledge and burgled over a tiny waterfall, the children sat on the big stone steps.
Michael began: “my uncle has a small collection from this time. I’ve seen a film and heard my father and uncle speak of books from this time. They refer to it as ‘most unnatural, a time without love.’”
Piri grimaced. “I don’t understand. How could you live without love to guide the way?”
“I don’t know. I guess that’s what we’re going too find out. Could it even be called living? It must be something very different from what we know as life,” said Alice.
“It was,” said Michael. “You should see this film! It’s all about lust and hatred and violence. They cry and complain and rush around. I found it, well…silly. They desire things.”
“They desire things?” repeated Piri.
“Yeah. They want things. They talk about this wanting all the time, and they spend all their time and energy trying to get things.”
“What things?” asked Con, perplexed.
“Well, they want money, they want love – that’s what they call lust – some kind of possession of another person. They want land and water and food and vehicles and clothes.”
“What! Why would they want when all is given?”
“Well, they seem not to partake of what is given. They want this other stuff,” continued Michael.
“Just a minute, though. You said they wanted food and water. Why did they not have food and water?”
“Well, that was connected with power and money back then.”
Everyone threw up their hands and looked dumbfounded at Michael.
“What are you talking about?” said Ali for the rest.
“Well, they seem not to have understood anything really. They let some control food and water, and if you couldn’t pay you couldn’t have any.”
“Pay?” queried Piri.
‘Golly,” squirmed Michael, “I’m not well versed. I don’t know what all this means. It’s some system where your worth is connected to how much money you have. I don’t know. It sure seems stupid to me. I think they thought they owned the earth, or some owned it and sold it off to others.”
“Well,” said Alice, “I think we’ve answered teacher’s question. It’s important to study the Age of Stupidity because we absolutely don’t understand it at all. And if what teacher said about all the billions who endured it is true, which it usually is, then out of respect for their lives we need to understand what they went through, to honor them.”
A solemnity swept through the little group, and the song of the water turned their head to its beauty. They all gazed at its tranquility, and its ceaseless flow attracted them until all were aware that a millenium ago those people looked upon the same vista. But what did they see?
Con broke the silence: “They were just like us, weren’t they? But they were ruled by thoughts very far from the truth. I understand why we must look with compassion. Shall we walk across the river?”
And they did.
III
Next morning the teacher could see that the students were eager to continue. They had done the work of preparing themselves for the inquiry.
“Why are we studying the Age of Stupidity, Piri?”
“It is a good thing to do, to make sure that we are living right-side-up. I think that because I find it so hard to understand is a good thing, because it doesn’t make sense. If I understood it easily I would have to wonder about my own guidance system. That’s what I think.”
“I think we all feel the same,” said Michael, and many heads nodded.
“All right, let’s proceed. I thought that by looking at the effects of this Age, as exemplified in its last one hundred and fifty years, we might encapsulate the causes.
“There were constant wars, racial hatreds, extinction of many species of plants, animals and human cultures. There was overpopulation, famines and extremes in weather. In other words, disharmony and chaos everywhere. Money was seen as the solution to this chaos.”
“Were the wars between those battling for harmony and those fighting for disharmony?” asked Ali.
“Yes, were the wise being starved out by the stupid?” interjected Alice.
“Were the stupid people trying to out-populate the wise?” piped in Piri.
“No, no” replied the teacher.
“Oh!” was the collective response.
“People were taught that they were the brain and the body, plus the emotions.”
“Oh!” was the collective response.
“Therefore, the lower qualities were nurtured and only a few grew up and demonstrated a higher nature.”
“But that would mean, sir, that these people acted and thought as very little children – undeveloped, unready to take upon themselves the responsibilities of life. How do you prevent a human from maturing…I mean, today we…I mean, what resources did they…oh my…” and Alice’s voice trailed off.
“Are you beginning to see?” asked the teacher.
“That certainly helps explain the film I saw,” said Michael. “The characters were so undeveloped, so without focus or the ability to respond to life, so like eight year olds! They were all afraid and vague and confused. They knew so little, and they used what they knew selfishly. There was absolutely no beauty, so there was nothing to the story. I wondered why anyone would bother to tell it.”
Con threw up her hand. “I’ve made a list. What is war? What is extinction? And how could money be viewed as a solution?”
The teacher looked puzzled and said, “I don’t really know the answers to your questions, Con. We have to look into this together. Let’s play act it out and see what happens.
“Okay, we need two sides. Michael and Con, stand facing each other. Okay, now, Con, you ask Michael for something and you refuse to give it to her, Michael.”
“Why would he refuse?” asked Con. “If I needed something he had, why would he refuse?”
“It seems that he would refuse because he didn’t want you to have it, or you don’t have enough money to pay for it.”
Con’s and Michael’s shoulders drooped as they stood facing each other across the space between them, feeling hopelessly inadequate.
“Now, you must remove your heart and mind, and everything you know, and feel that nothing exists but your desire to have what you want, Con; and your equal desire, Michael, that she will not have it, or pay you what you ask.”
“You are asking us to give up our humanity.”
“Yes,” said the teacher.
“To ask is cruel.”
“Yes,” said teacher. “Now you are feeling what those people had to live with.”
“They didn’t have to!” said Michael sharply.
“No, they didn’t, but let us continue, for you are missing the point if you think they chose, had free will, as it were. They were the least free of any group to ever live upon the Earth.”
“I’m beginning to see that,” said Con. “I can hear my heart pounding, and I think I’m feeling fear. It’s very strange. I’m losing my sense of myself as I stand in front of Michael, who has power over me, apparently. I’m sensing that he could do me harm. This is very strange. Is this what it is to feel isolated and separated, adrift in a meaninglessness that threatens my little life? That’s becoming…all there is. Wow! That’s powerful stuff.”
Michael, appalled, moved away from Con and sat down. “I won’t be a part of another’s discomfort in this fashion. It’s a loathsome feeling.”
“Do you see, said teacher, how the great forces of attraction and repulsion were twisted so completely that they became their opposites? What you will not do, Michael, would have looked stupid to them. You would have been looked upon as weak, and maybe even subversive. You would have been taught, at school, to overcome your natural tendencies and never pay attention to your higher inclinations. That was derided. Just the opposite of reality.”
“I think I know what hate is,” said Michael, “because it is a hateful feeling.”
“I’ll say,” said Con. “Brrrr!”
“Yes, very good, it is cold, and that’s because it is heartless. Now we’re exploring the atmosphere that must be present for the condition known as war.”
“It’s utterly repulsive,” said Alice. “Need we go on?”
All heads were shaking no.
“Okay. What is next on your list, Con?”
“Extinction.”
“How do we know this word today?”
“Well, I’ve rarely come across it,” said Ali. “Things usually transform, like an idea that grows, matures, and reveals more and more possibilities. Extinction means something stops, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, go on.”
“Well, nothing stops…does it?” asked Ali. “I mean, we might stop doing something one way, in order to do it a better way, but that isn’t stupid. So, I must consider this the other way round…right?”
“Right!” said the teacher.
“So, things can be stopped. This is normal in the Age of Stupidity. Something can be stopped before it is understood, before its full beauty can be appreciated. Why…but…why would anyone want to do that?”
“Because you don’t think it can be beautiful,” said Piri.
“Or you don’t think it means anything,” added Alice.
“I see,” said the teacher. “If you are so stupid that you think everything is worthless, then it is no matter that you stop it before ever knowing it.”
“But human beings gold a reverence for things they don’t understand,” said Piri. “It’s what’s interesting to us.”
“Not if you’re stupid,” chided Michael.
“Boy,” said Piri with disgust, “they sure didn’t have any room to grow, did they?”
“They almost extincted themselves,” laughed Con, and all joined in. The teacher realized that this laughter was an essential ingredient for looking into this Age, and they all savored it.
IV
“I think we’re on to something,” said Piri, when everyone was quiet. “Think about this – when there’s no reverence for your own life, there’s none for anything else’s. I looked up a bit about this Age with my Dad, and while they said they valued life, it seems to us it was extinction, the fear of extinction, that put value on life. Yet in the one hundred and fifty years we’re focusing on, more people died unnaturally than at any other time. Even when you proportion it out to take in the greater population, there’s a horrendous disregard for life.
“The one thing we found that had merit was something called the Humane Society, which worked to prevent cruelty to animals. Yet thousands of animals were becoming extinct at this time, directly as a result of human action, not to mention plants by the tens of thousands!
“And another thing,” Piri went on breathlessly, “they went about at high speeds in unsafe vehicles that produced poison gas and crashed into things – many people died this way. And they knew about it, and did nothing! That’s what I don’t understand. They weren’t retarded! They knew that a lot they did was harmful, but they didn’t correct it. Is that why they are called stupid?”
The little group sat in a stunned silence.
Alice cleared her throat. “There’s something much worse,” she said. “The lies they told, and for the most part believed. Well, let me tell you one. Well, they thought human beings evolved from apes. Up until the end, they were trying to make apes into human beings. They looked at them as little ignorant brothers. Can you imagine – not recognizing the heritage of the human being! And do you know what they called the oldest profession?”
Everyone looked at her blankly.
Ali said, “Of course, throughout time the healer and the philosopher have been here on earth. They were the first to help us with the transition.”
“Not so for these people, “replied Alice. “They called prostitution the oldest profession.
The teacher gazed at his bewildered students. He was not at all sure if they knew about lust and money. Very few did. So he asked Alice what was meant by “prostitution.”
“Why, it means you help a person in need, for money. Can you imagine that, sir? That the great ones of the ancient past would ver ask for anything when they could be of service to humanity?”
“No, Alice, it is a terrible thing to think, and I think we have come to the crux of the matter. The thoughts these people accepted created a world so unrealistic that we cannot imagine it, and why should we? Everything has turned right-side-up, and you have shown me the unimportance of this Age. I thank you, my beautiful students.”
The teacher took up a thick scholarly volume that lay on his lap. He went over to the brazier and put it on the flames.
“What’s that?” asked Michael.
“This is an old book, the definitive work on the Age of Stupidity. I think it is the only book in all of time that should be burnt. The few noble souls will be remembered forever, but not because they lived in those times, They are remembered for being human beings. The rest are best left with their shame unremembered.”
There was a sigh as the book burst into a cold blue flame that gave off no warmth.
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