So smart yet so dumb?

After seeing this article online couldn't help but feel rather peeved about the whole thing.

http://www.theawl.com/2011/02/an-qa-with-ted-hall-the-jfk-baggage-carousel-jumper?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheAwl+(The+Awl)

For those who don't want to check the link out. The quick summary is this, boy meets girl. Girl has to fly away on plane. Boy buys ticket to get on plane. No ID. Crawls through check in baggage to try to... get to girl? Gets arrested and charged.

This is rather old news but brought into mind a possible culture clash in terms of perception. As in how the East with its more authoritarian background and social harmony. And the West, in terms of individual freedom and personal rights.

Then I realized I was reading too much into this and that he was a massive idiot. Did not even get in to see the girl. What was the point of all that then?

I liked how he actually replied to the comments. Especially to one RobT who wrote "Where some see romance, I see mental illness". His response was to say "where many see success I see war, insecurity, and a dying planet"  My only question to that is "what" =p But I suppose he'll never find this site so we won't hear an answer. 


I used to spout that line before. But the world isn't one big global entity with fat cats at the top orchestrating everything. The insecurity and war moves from countries desire to better themselves, misguided as they are. But International Law has been gaining more credence, slowly but surely. At the end of the day war and insecurity are bad for profits if they're in a zone with vested interests. More money flows into stable zones, because that is where you can set up the banks. And credit cards. And fleece people who don't quite understand finance. Sorry, I digress.

Is this to slag the man? In a way I suppose it is. In another way though it is a showcase of how we might amass all sorts of educational credentials and still be unable to listen to reason, convinced in our own minds that what we're doing is the right thing, the correct thing to do. It is silencing the emotional aspect and finding a calm rational workaround that is a skill useful to have in life. Not all the time, but a required skill nonetheless.

I think this interview got me thinking because he said when he was waiting in jail he mostly meditated; understood why some cops tried to rough him a bit and tried to help a man with asthma. And then he goes on to say " I wanted the world to know that I really want to see this girl. " Herp Derp. The internet meme seems an appropriate response to that. 


What a mental disconnect. Does meditation automatically confer higher intellect? No. But I'd like to think if you can practice it you are able of self reflection. The sort of self reflection that prevents you from taking an action that shuts down a major airport so 'you can let the world know'.


I think this article could develop into a discussion about compartmentalization, and also how emotions may override rational thought and realistic thinking. Compartmentalization is good for preventing emotions interfering when a clear decision is needed, but does it also allow people to rationalize rather cruel actions? A phrase I would use is "the banality of evil"


The mad bad dictator cannot act on his own. At his behest is the average man. The punch clock clerk/worker/soldier/mechanic. At the dictator's whim the machine swings into action; records are opened, dissidents noted down into a file which passes onto another worker and so on and so forth until the security forces are deployed. Knock on the door at three in the morning. Suspect led away for questioning. Body ends up in a pit three months later. Perhaps at some point the cogs looked at themselves and said 'crikey what am I doing'; but a useful refrain comes in. 'Its just a job' the family needs the money. The pay is ok. And the machine keeps ticking on. Hence, the banality of evil. There is no Mount Doom, no Skull Fortress of Saddam. Just people following the daily routine at the whim of a madman. 


Is there a counter? I cannot say. It is better addressed in a post regarding governance. The different styles and cultures. Western Liberal Democracy cannot work for all countries and all cultures. My personal preference has always been for stable; efficient; corruption-free governance. For those to occur, the requirements of a liberal democracy 'that every man has a voice' doesn't quite work. To be honest there is a fair amount of nonsense being spouted around in the media and to govern well and effectively you can't have idiots polluting others minds. An example of general idiocy would be youtube comments. 


Keep in mind that education does not mean you're automatically exempt from believing in absolute drivel. It helps increase the odds, but a better armour against that is a critically thinking mind. Educated people are amongst those that believe in Falun Gong; that have died refusing to recant (see previous article on Falun Gong). Pointless death, for a man who happily discusses aliens being the only source of science in the world. 


The human mind is a fascinating thing, to the great heights of Nobel prize winners, down to internet page commentors, the way the mind processes the world never ceases to amaze. That and how ******* ****** people can get. For entertainment on ****** people, please see Ricky Gervais and all his work with Karl Pilkinton for a true classic of the genre. 


 [TLDR] In conclusion, education is no guarantee that someone won't do something stupid in life that they could have avoided with a bit of thought. Sometimes you learn that when young, some times older.