From stupidity to genius

 

 

What is the definition of stupidity?

 

And even more importantly, what is the definition of genius?

 

In fact this is not a status question.

 

For stupidity is the cause of all human destruction and true genius (which we shall soon define, which is very different to what people think is genius) is the cause of all love, unity and harmony.

 

When Einstein was asked how the holocaust could happen? – after all the Germans were by no means a stupid race – in fact technologically and scientifically they were probably the most advanced in the world – he said “sometimes people don’t think.”

 

In fact, the bastard Hitler himself clearly took advantage of this predilection by saying “lucky for leaders that people don’t think” (and Einstein wirily said “two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I have my doubt about the former.”)

 

In other words, a good mind is no protection from stupidity.

 

The ultimate example of stupidity is Pharaoh – here is a man who has lost his entire country to plague after plague – his own advisers and minsters are telling him to let the Jews go – but he stubbornly refuses until his own life (being a firstborn) is in danger.

 

What is this unique quality that renders us intelligent beings (relativity speaking, for again the Egyptians themselves in their age were the height of science as evidenced by their technology in building the pyramids and other technologies we know they had, like matches etc. etc.) so moronic?

 

The answer is in the very structure of the mind.

 

Let’s begin with the mammalian brain.

 

I recall seeing a show in which a professor had a chimpanzee do a maze on a joystick (like the big old Atari consoles) and he said the chimpanzee is a genius – the only trouble to the genius of the chimpanzee – is after he did the maze, he was given a peanut.

 

In other words, as the Alter Rebbe – the founder of Chabad Chassidus – the intellectual branch of modern Jewish mysticism – explains, an animal is primarily emotions – instincts – biological hardwired desires (for food, being a good example) so its brain is simply the slave of its desires – animals don’t wonder about the formation of the world, for that is not part of their desires – that is why they are capable of great cunning and genius, but only if they will be rewarded by a peanut or afraid of a physical pain (which is why they exhibit no shame, as they don’t form identities, hence don’t need to protect their image.)

 

Conversely is a human – we humans are blessed with great minds (maybe not as smart as chimpanzees but some are better than others) but our ability is not in having a mind, but in having the ability for our mind to control our behavior.

 

Yet the tension will remain.

 

For fundamentally we are conflicted between three powerful drives.

 

The first is the logical deduction of our independent mind (for example “dieting is a good idea.”)

 

The second is the instinctive compulsion of our instinctual body (“chocolate cake tastes great.”)

 

But the third is the ultimate source of our stupidity and that is our ego.

 

So Pharaoh’s identity was tied into his being “the king.”

 

As such, he could not forgo his identity, feeling that letting the Jews go, would be a loss of who he is.

 

But ultimately, we all suffer from the Pharaoh problem, to one extent or another; and ultimately, the only way we can get beyond the restrictions of our identity (which not only in Pharaoh’s case was the cause of his personal destruiotn but is also, in the case of Hitler and any radical, antisemite, bully, the cause of being destructive, for the human instinct of jealousy feels that when another is “happier or more fortunate than I, yet that’s unfair for I am equally if not more deserving!” hence the jealousy creates anger the anger creates hatred the hatred creates rationalizations of the others evil, the rationalizations create the justification to actually be cruel and it is all based on the ego’s jealousy) so the only way we can rise above the limitations of our identities / egos is merging into the singular truth: all including I is really God, and the only objective reality (not subjective instinctual impulses and egotistical mania) is to submit my desires to God’s.