Bereft of Hope

Some days I truly believe in humanity. Then reality kicks in.

The other day I was waiting in the drive through lane for my order. In front of me, not one, but two cars were so far away from the pickup window that the drivers had to step out the door to grab their food. This despite their windows being open. I point that out to show there was a problem with them. The drivers were simply too far back.

Some days I truly believe. But today I believe that people are stupid.

The Trouble With Stupid

Do you remember the other day when I spoke about doing stupid things? If not, refresh yourself here: 

Marty being stupid 

For those who don't want to give me the additional page views by clicking on that link, I was talking about how I openly decided to do something very stupid one day last week: I cut through a weld with a high speed saw. It was something I should not have done once.

I did it three more times yesterday.

The problem with stupid is that if you do it one time and all goes well, it's easy to do it again. And a third time. And a fourth. See, you get comfortable with stupid. You and stupid come to terms. You make a treaty with stupid which you know in your heart stupid will break one day. That's how and why stupid things eventually physically hurt you.

By the time I was making my way through that fourth weld I had almost forgotten the hazard of what I was doing. Then I saw, er, realized that the knuckles of my left hand were within about 3/4 of an inch of the high speed wheel as I held the metal I was cutting through. That knowledge having come upon me, I nearly jerked my hand away, which is precisely what you do not want to do. Sudden motion is when stupid acts with the greatest flair.

Steeling my nerves, I finished that last cut. I fully intend not to do such a thing again. I don't think I'm all that far into the comfort zone with stupid. But time will tell.

Off by a mile

People don't think. They have to realize sometimes that they don't. Don't they?

Whatever. What does, yet should not astound me, is how I can still be amazed when it happens.

The latest examples come from my sales job. In directing a potential new customer to my store, I cautioned him not to go beyond Warren Avenue here in Detroit; he would have gone too far if he had. An hour later I get a call from the guy's cell. He was more than a mile beyond our place of business. "I saw Warren and never saw you so I kept on going," he explained to me. You saw the street which I told you was too far and KEPT GOING? It never occurred to you to circle around?

Another fella called to asked if he could have his snake (slang for the drain cleaning equipment we sell) repaired by us. "Probably, but tell me what you have so that I can tell you if I have access to the parts you might need," I asked.

"A snake," he responds.

"Okay," I said, trying to be patient, "But what type of machine exactly?"

"Uhh, the kind that opens sewers."

I asked, with no little exasperation, "I need a make and model number."

"Uhhhhhh, y'all worked on it 'bout five years ago..." he began.

Click.

Dang. I hung up on my only customer from 2014. That was such a good year too.

The Harvard Business School is wrong

You know, people are stupid. Really, profoundly stupid. I'm learning that more and more with each passing day.

To be sure, there has been ample evidence of it the last thirty years of my life. What does, yet should not astound me, is how I can still be amazed when it happens.

The latest examples come from my sales job. In directing a potential new customer to my store, I cautioned him not to go beyond Warren Avenue here in Detroit; he would have gone too far if he had. An hour later I get a call from the guy's cell. He was more than a mile beyond our place of business. "I saw Warren and never saw you so I kept on going," he explained to me. You saw the street which I told you was too far and KEPT GOING? It never occurred to you to circle around?

My other phone started ringing, so I hung up on him. I employed Red Foreman's favorite phrase as I did.

Another fella called to asked if he could have his snake (slang for the drain cleaning equipment we sell) repaired by us. "Probably, but tell me what you have so that I can tell you if I have access to the parts you might need," I asked.

"A snake," he responds.

"Okay," I said, trying to be patient, "But what type of machine exactly?"

"Uhh, the kind that opens sewers."

I barked, "I need a make and model number."

"Uhhhhhh, y'all worked on it 'bout five years ago..." he began.

Click.

Dang. I hung up on my only customer from 2011. That was such a good year too.

I tell you, the Harvard Business School is dead wrong. The customer isn't always right.

The Stupid Secretary of State

New Secretary of State John Kerry told a group of German students that Americans have a right to be stupid. The remark garnered a few laughs, not the least of which likely emanated from a general European view that Americans are stupid. Be that as it may, Kerry called the supposed right to be stupid a virtue which is protected by our Constitutional system.

A-hem. Let's be perfectly clear on such points: no one has the right to be stupid, just as no one has the corollary right to be wrong. It follows, then, that no one ought to tolerate stupidity and error either. We may have to, but only as a matter of practical necessity and certainly not because the stupid person has a true right to be that way.

This is the sort of argument which must lead towards the toleration of horrid ideas and real moral evils. Why do we have abortion, for example? Because of this very same argument for tolerance: we can't make a woman carry a baby to term because she has the right to be wrong. You may notice that those who are pro-life apparently do not have the same right to be wrong, but that's okay. It's simply another strike against the secular world: when they say that people have the right to be wrong, they mean themselves, not us or those who think our way.

This is the lesson which ought to be learned from Secretary Kerry's remarks. Tolerance is merely a buzzword for let the left do what it wants to, because it certainly isn't willing to let the right do what it wants to, as illustrated by issues such and abortion and gay rights. They have a right to be stupid; they have a right to be judgmental in judging us. But judge not them. They have a right to be stupid.

Stupid is as stupid does, eh, Forrest? It's right in the Constitution and Supreme Court rulings. As America slowly loses the moral high ground, we will have inane, off the cuff remarks about stupidity as a virtue to thank, delivered from the highest thrones in our government. Will we, even for a moment, consider whether such ideas are themselves stupid?

Not so long as they make a good sound bite.