The greatest luxury is stupidity

I apologize - this turned longer than I intended. I needed to get some thoughts out and I didn’t realize how much has been bouncing around. I decided to share it in case it resonates with anyone else and to hear others’ thoughts.

As a federal employee, I am one of a couple million who were both the last line of defense and the front line. In short, we were the only line. Cabinet members were carefully vetted this time for absolute loyalty.  Congress and the Supreme Court had been bought and paid for like a takeout pizza. Congress didn’t blink when their power of the purse and creating laws was snatched. The Supreme Court graciously ceded their check on power by providing a carte blanche even before the election by ruling that the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity. It was only the federal employees that remained blocking the federal government from unchecked power. Sadly and frighteningly our removal began immediately and illegally on January 20^th.  How did we get here?

The greatest luxury is stupidity – either acting stupid or simply, being stupid. People can afford to make bad decisions in good times. Yet when good days become bad, the cost of stupidity is too high. Whether it be survival by intelligence, luck, or cunning, some people will get by and a few with thrive in difficult times. Depending how difficult things become and how quickly they become so, I suspect that our collective IQ will be forced to increase.

I listened to Dan's amazing story about Cyrus the Great several years ago, but I didn’t fully appreciate it.

“Seeing that Zeus grants lordship to the Persian people, and to you, Cyrus, among them, let us, after reducing Astyages, depart from the little and rugged land which we possess and occupy one that is better. There are many such lands on our borders, and many further distant. If we take one of these, we will all have more reasons for renown. It is only reasonable that a ruling people should act in this way, for when will we have a better opportunity than now, when we are lords of so many men and of all Asia?”

Cyrus heard them, and found nothing to marvel at in their design; “Go ahead and do this,” he said; “but if you do so, be prepared no longer to be rulers but rather subjects. Soft lands breed soft men; wondrous fruits of the earth and valiant warriors grow not from the same soil.”

The Persians now realized that Cyrus reasoned better than they, and they departed, choosing rather to be rulers on a barren mountain side than dwelling in tilled valleys to be slaves to others. Herodotus IX.122

We have lived in tilled valleys for decades too long and its impacts have set in. We have literally become soft by sitting at desks, staring at phones, and eating wondrous fruits to a point beyond obesity. I don’t know if I should or shouldn’t look at beach photos from the 1950’s. We have also figuratively become soft in our beliefs, morals, and values. The only time that we move quickly is to ignore overwhelming evidence from experts and even our own eyes. We choose absurd “answers” forged from anger pedaled by fear-mongers for a buck (or millions of them) on the radio, tv, and podcasts. Too often we have chosen our phones over our families, our friends, and especially our neighbors and actual communities. So, what did we decide to do?

In November, we enthusiastically chose to give up so much freedom, wealth, and happiness to appease our fear of immigrants (taking our jobs, which we didn’t want; harming us, even though we murder our children ourselves with AR-15s and we seemingly don’t care for we never seek to change), fear of transgender people (a very few men in women’s sports), and fear of kids using litterboxes in classrooms (even though this has been repeatedly debunked). We have had the freedom to be stupid, ignorant, racist, sexist, homophobic, and many more that I’m forgetting and don't want to look up. I wonder now, without that freedom, will we become better people? Where do we go from here?

There are an infinite number of paths forward from this point. There are paths that simply return to the way things were even a year ago. There are paths where the current administrative actions fizzle out and we wander in the confusion as things unceremoniously unfold. There are paths that descend into revolt, civil war, and chaos and stay there for too long. There are even paths that by one turn or another ultimately improve upon the state of things.

Unarguably, there are and have been systemic problems. Even though I had (maybe still have) a love for Ayn Rand, Howard Roark, and John Galt, I recognize that our problems have stemmed from money, power, and greed. Too much money in politics – hello Nancy, Mitch, and Clarence. Too much money in healthcare insurance companies – hello Luigi. Too much money concentrated in too few people – hello boys. And then too many people who don’t have enough money to feed and care for their families – hello to the billions of people who don’t have the luxury of being able to be stupid or to think of anything other than feeding their families today.

I have had the amazing experience of both the unhappiness and greed of millionaires and billionaires in Vail and the simple happiness and charity of the impoverished in Colombia. Where we have lost our way - it’s often been through money. There are paths back. However, is this current approach and the current actors the best option? Is it worth the gamble? Will the benefits outweigh the costs?

Sadly, the people who are behind this gamble are not the ones who will suffer – it’s the ones with the billions of dollars and histories of incapability of caring for others that are taking the "chance". So, I struggle to sleep some nights, with thoughts bouncing in my head, fearing that the path that we’re on will not quickly or easily lead to better outcomes for most of us. It’s not without hope, but the odds seem thin that this path takes us towards collective solutions and improved livelihoods for the people without the billions. And even if this path does take us there, it will most likely be equally tortuous and torturous.

Out of cosmic harmony, our stupidity seems destined to return us to Cyrus’s barren mountain side where we will be forced to surrender our stupidity, relinquish our racism, depend on actual communities, support each other, and work together.

For now though, my thoughts are to be cognizant of what we still have, brace for impact (i.e., save your money), be nimble, look for or better yet, create opportunities, help those that you can, forget being stupid, and save the anger for another day.