The War on Stupid
People
“We must stop glorifying intelligence and treating our
society as a playground for the smart minority.
… Smart people should feel entitled to make the most of their gift. But they should not be permitted to reshape
society so as to instate giftedness as a universal yardstick of human worth.”
This is the conclusion drawn by David H. Freedman in his
article in the latest Atlantic
(July/August 2016, p. 13-14.) I happened
to see Mr. Freedman on a TV news show yesterday, where the discussion was about
“experts” and “elites” who may have unwittingly brought on the recent onslaught
by “stupid” people against progressive politics and politicians. I have said openly that I am terrified of
Trump and his followers, as though they were barbarians at the gates of my
world, or playground, as Freedman has it. Suddenly I see that I am one of the elites who
consider Brexit and Trump supporters to be unbearably stupid. But wait. I’m a Zen priest and Bible scholar (see the
rest of this essay on sugoisekai.blogspot.com.)
I am convinced that we all are inextricably connected to
each other (Buddhist wisdom) and must treat others the way we ourselves want to
be treated (Christian wisdom). The pivotal word here is “we”: who exactly are we? Zazen and prayer are supposed to turn us into
creatures of loving kindness (in very different ways, of course.) Whether
someone (including myself) has reached a deep level of perception, or is sinful
or sinless, is not my concern.
But I have considered stupidity to be somehow separate from
any of the other things that distinguish us. The last thing I (or any
progressive) would do -- as Freedman points out -- is to discriminate against
others on the basis of their race, ethnicity, gender, love-life, religion or
physical disability. But their IQ? How often have I called people stupid? Many times!
Now as never before, religion and politics have seemed to me to be
overrun with stupid people. Anti-abortion,
anti-gay Christians and tea-party Republicans drive me crazy with their
stupidity!
You don’t have a university degree? Or you have one from a Podunk college? Forget it.
I know what you think and will say (and VOTE on) before you do. As a
Japanophile I enjoy telling Americans that in Japan married couples do not have
babies unless they can afford them, raise them and send them to college. Pregnancies that don’t meet that test are
aborted. My listeners (especially
Catholics) never quite get over the shock of “are aborted,” so my general point
(“look how smart the Japanese are”) is completely missed. That is sad to
me. I’m even left speechless by people
who use double-negatives and don’t know the difference between “your” and
“you’re” (something that linguistics departments are accepting nowadays, more’s
the pity.)
As my own son, Reg, has said to me (and that I repeat, but
only in jest), “Dad, you are a snob!”
The fact of the matter is, I am. I
secretly maintain a deep prejudice against pop music and sports. “Artists” on rock and country western stages
and big-time stars on the basketball court, baseball, football and soccer
fields are idolized beyond reason and paid outrageous amounts of money; whereas
real (i.e., classical) musicians, singers and dancers (real artists) struggle
to make enough money to live on, even before retirement. I am insulted beyond
anything I can express in words.
So what do I do now? I can stop insisting on proper English
usage and ignore pop music and sports.
But there are weightier matters here.
A Zen student asked his teacher, “How should a Buddhist regard
ISIS?” (Hello, James Kenney.) This is the question of our age. My knee-jerk response (the same one that
stupid people have) is, “Kill the bastards!”
That is not the response I as a Zen teacher would let slip. (As a Christian soldier I might.) But I do believe that when I feel deep anger
I need to be angry. I need to face anger
head-on, just like I need to go into my feelings of hatred, fear, resentment, disappointment
or even love when they appear in my heart.
Is the answer then, “Ignore ISIS” or “Let the Muslims sort
it out”? I don’t think so. We all must do something. I happened to be in Llasa’s Jokhang square in
1980 when a demonstration by Tibetan nuns was put down by Chinese
authorities. (A documentary of it was
made sometime later by Western filmmakers who were there and who interviewed
some of the nuns who escaped to Dharamsala, India.) I was proud of the nuns
then and still am. They sacrificed their
lives. Many were tortured and many died. Tibetan Buddhist priests have generally taken
the position that each person can react to such brutality in whatever way they
choose. Many have decided to follow His
Holiness the Dalai Llama to India, others have immigrated to the U.S. and
Europe. There may have been no
alternative. I’m sure the Chinese were
ready to annihilate the entire clergy if they had actually staged a revolution. They have done a good job of wiping out
Buddhism in Tibet as things stand today anyway.
For me there is, in fact, no answer to what should be done today
about the Chinese Communists -- who now feel religion can be practiced but only
under tight surveillance -- or about ISIS, which considers its interpretation
of Islam to be the only correct one and that other Muslims (and any unbelievers
in any part of the world) deserve to be killed. I saw public executions in
Beijing in 1970. We all have seen
beheadings and stonings by ISIS zealots on TV.
I draw the line at killing. Any
killing. But for any reason? I’m not sure.
The latest ISIS bombing in Istanbul may be a frantic act of
a group of people under attack by other people, including us. Should we have
gotten involved in Kuwait and Iraq in the first place? No.
But what is happening now, as a result of that incursion or not, is
happening. Careful, skillful, shrewd
political maneuvering is necessary to prevent a mass killing on a scale to
which not even Hiroshima and Nagasaki can compare. It is a global issue. We ARE the world, even if xenophobes in this
country think we are not. Or that global
warming is not real.
My understanding of reality, my perception of it, can be
liberating enough to me that nothing actually matters. And nothing, no one thing, not even everything,
does. We all die eventually. But there is something called “skillful
means” that all of us can use. Real
skill comes out of deep meditation (samadhi).
Let’s work together. This is an
existential crisis. We don’t have to
exist. But we can, at least temporarily. Shall we?
