Stupidity Is a Normal Phenomenon

A detailed Summary of Stupidity Is a Normal Phenomenon

Not long ago, my brother and I were driving down Main St. on a Friday night. We were pulled over by a police officer. The officer had time only to ask us for our drivers licences and registration, before we heard the sickening crunch of twisted metal. It seemed that a young man, who was driving a lifted Ford pickup, had been mesmerized by the flashing red and blue lights on the patrol car. Failing to look where he was going, he crashed into the rear of the four door car stopped at the light. It was obvious that he was rubber necking, and paying more attention to us than the road. With a frustrated growl, the police officer let us go. As we drove away, we saw the young man standing outside his vehicle wearing a foolish grin, shrugging his shoulders as the police officer spoke to him. I sat, amazed at the sheer stupidity of the driver, and his amusement in a situation that should be somber, or at least serious.

I read an article about two years ago in which a U.S. Marines plane, on a low-level flying mission in Italy, cut the wire supporting a cable car on its way down from a ski resort on Cermis Mountain. All twenty passengers, including the cable car operator, perished when the gondola plunged to the mounta

in below. Each of the four men manning the plane was initially charged with negligent homicide and involuntary manslaughter, but only the two men actually flying the plane were court martialed. Over the course of the trial, it was found that the plane was flying at speeds more than 500 miles per hour, faster than military regulations allow. Additionally, it came out in the trial that the military-issued map that the pilots were using did not show the cable car. With a decision that angered the Italian government, both men were acquitted. They were later court martialed a second time when it was discovered that they destroyed a videotape that had been recording from the plane on the day that the cable car wire was clipped. Judging from their behavior, they compounded their professional incompetence with criminal stupidity.

Stupidity warrants our attention now more than ever, as its costs have increased to the point that we no longer can afford it as we have in the past. Hopefully, by studying this aspect of our behavior, everyone might learn how to reduce the incidence of this phenomenon in the future. However, if nothing else, I think that Bob Hope said it best "Your ignorance cramps my conversation."

Judas Iscariot, was the disciple, and apostle, and the betrayer, of the Son of God. "And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests, to betray him to them. Who on hearing it were glad; and they promised him they would give him money." In this account, notice that Judas takes the initiative; he is not tempted and seduced by the priests, but approaches them on his own accord. Perhaps the most significant thing that can be said of Judas Iscariot was that in feeling sorrow for his crime of betrayal, he did not seek to atone for his sin to Jesus, whom he had wronged, but went to his accomplices in crime. The priests, payed him for betraying Jesus, and sent him on his way. He went out and hung himself, supposedly in guilt. Since, Judas has become the archetype of the betrayer in Western culture

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Approximate Word count = 1369
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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