The most powerful tool in anyone's arsenal is stupidity. It will win you battles, arguments and even wars. It is only a problem when it your own stupidity. There are two types of stupid people. People who are stupid and realise it. They generally don't cause problems and know their own limitations. It becomes a problem when they convince themselves they are a genius. Stupidity is only really dangerous when the stupid think that they are cleverer than anyone else. It amazes me how often stupid people manage to manourvre themselves into positions of power and responsibility. The reason is because they offer simple solutions to difficult problems. The problem with simple solutions to difficult problems, is that they don't work. The problem is that every time you address an issue, the vacuum that is left is filled and it isn't always filled in the way you want. Being calm and analysing situations and trying to anticipate the effects of actions will often reveal why simple solutions are defective. However, when you deal with extremely complex problems, you cannot predict every outcome of every action. You can make a stab at a guess and work out mitigations, but when you play with guns and you don't know what your doing, you are as likely to shoot yourself in the foot as you are to shoot your enemy in the head.
But if you are up against a stupid opponent, their stupidity is your strongest weapon. Even if it seems like the odds are not in your favour, a stupid person does not make good decisions. If they don't listen to wise council, then they are going to make mistakes. Arrogance and over confidence is the downfall of many. You need a cool, calm head. I guess the problem many of us have, is that we don't know how stupid we really are. I was lucky. I went to St Vincents and had a bevvy of nuns to inform me of my limitations on a daily basis. I learned that despite my own limitations, I could succeed if I surrounded myself with good people who I could trust and had good judgement. Usually such people do not seek the spotlight. Like many fools, I actually quite like it. That is why I play in a band!
People sometimes see my willingness to delegate and discuss as a weakness. It isn't, it's a superpower. As a musician I write songs. I like to think I have good ideas, but they are invariable taken up three notches by the rest of the band, when they contribute. It was a principle I first learned in music. What I also learned is that not everyone is trustworthy. When people breach trust, you only find out when the damage is done. Often people who are duplicitous believe they are clever. However, you have to operate on the level of a genius to get away with snake like behaviour over any length of time. Most such people are not that clever. They get caught out and find themselves to be deviod of friends. It is all fine and dandy to curry favour by being sneaky, but only a fool misses the fact that people despise people with no honour.
It can be dispiriting seeing such behaviour, but arrogant fools are their own worst enemy and when they surround themselves with sneaks and cheats, they are doomed to exist in a level of hell that is grim and unimaginably dull. When you come up against such characters, don't despair. They make mistakes. It is not always pleasant in the middle of it, but their foolishness is always their own downfall. They do get their victories, but their lack of self awareness means they misinterpret the lessons or generally don't even see there are lessons to be learned. Ultimately it never ends well. So if you come up against a fool in life, or despair of those on the world stage, don't despair. Just bide your time and make sensible wise choices as best you can.
No comments:
Post a Comment