An idiot story

  

When I chanced upon this maxim in Facebook, I can't help myself but to laugh at the anonymous author. Those people who would say they are not an idiot are actually the real idiot themselves. 

Let me give you an example. If you will notice the construction of the sentence of the silly maxim, the anonymous author is pertaining "to an idiot", meaning the subject is in singular form. But then s/he uses "They" and "their" in the next sentence which is in plural form to address his/her singular subject. Who is s/he pertaining to, an idiot or many idiots? Another mistake is that after the comma, the anonymous author uses a capital letter ("They") to continue with the next phrase of the sentence. In which case, we can conclude that the anonymous author commits an "idiocy". Therefore, he is an idiot! A-ha!

Let me tell you a bit of history for better analogy. We have to remember that we, as Filipinos, was once regarded as "idiots" by our colonizers (hence, we were called "indios" then, and regarded as second-class citizens in our own land). But it is our "idiocy" -- if that is what the anonymous author is driving at -- which became instrumental in attaining our freedom.

Since, we were no match with the modern rifles and munitions of our colonizers, what our revolutionary heroes did were to bring the battle down to their level. By bringing the "armed argument" to the jungles, our ancestors were able to beat the enemies with their skills and experience in guerrilla warfare. 

The same is true in the case of Vietnam. Who would ever think that Vietnam is capable of beating a super power? No one, right? But through their 'idiocy', the Vietnamese were able to drag the enemies in a battle that they have a great chance of winning.

In short, idiocy is not akin to an individual, but rather it is more related to circumstances. You are an idiot now because maybe you did something foolish due to a lapse in judgement or your inexperience in a certain thing. But to judge an individual as an idiot is a big no-no! 

Everyone has experienced of being an idiot, many times, in their lifetime. Hence, we can say that we are all "idiots", ceteris paribus. The only question now is who is the better "idiot"? So, there.