Friday, February 22, 2008

Koan of Stupidity

The Encyclopedia of Stupidity by Matthijs van Boxsel has, at last, risen to the top of the pile. It proves better than advertised. Better than I expected when I first posted about it.
Boxsel's thesis is that:
No one is intelligent enough to comprehend his own stupidity. And that is all to the good. Cognition has a disastrcous effect not only on stupidity, but also on the intelligence based on it.
-- The Comic Hiatus, pg 47

This suggested a koan of stupidity:

I have my little ways of doing things,
Which make sense to me.
Fold the towel narrow to fit in the bar,
Then fold in half and half again to fit the shelf.
It makes no sense to you, no matter how I explain.
So I must let it go. It matters not that you do it.
Only that I do it.
Because I am the one who wants to do it that way.
So where is the stupidity most?
In my insisting all do it my way?
Or in my insisting I do it my way?
Or is it both?

--ml
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Sunday, February 17, 2008

mauger mauger mauger

When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.
Stephen Jay Gould
--ml
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