GOD's LETTER TO STUPID PEOPLE

DEAR FLOCK AND HEATHENS TOO,

THIS IS GOD and I have a message for you today,

 A series of unfortunate events led me to Google’s search bar, where I began typing in “I feel stupid” and “I am stupid” and “I am incompetent”. I was in high hopes that I would find a blog post, article or peer reviewed academic paper deconstructing the idea of stupidity or offering advice for this state of being. Much to my surprise, I came across a copious number of websites calling out my own character as “Stupid”. Unfortunately, I found very few websites where humans were discussing their own stupidity. Humans appear to be rife with narcissism, a self-serving bias and an overconfidence that is repugnant to myself and the angels. Thankfully, I did find at least one website where a young chap was discussing his feelings of stupidity.

The website I found was a yahoo answers chat page. In it, an unidentified commentator was discussing his performance anxiety while working at McDonald’s.  This individual had been demoted from cashier, to “hamburger assembler” and then, all the way down the pecking chain to “floor mopper”. He was lamenting the fact that he was stupid, clumsy and could not multi-task. His working memory was befuddled as it was slammed with multiple orders, numbers and customer complaints. He seemed to be suggesting that he had an inferior brain. Many other commentators were chiming in, detailing their own mental sluggishness and the problems they encountered. One thing became readily clear—it was their stupid brains that were the reason for their stupid actions.  This individual’s post gave rise to an empathetic chorus of like-minded stupidfiles who also joined the forum, all of whom were lamenting their own plight with personal stupidity.

Before I go any farther may I extend a BIG CHEERY greeting to those of you who found this by typing in “I am incompetent” or something similar. There are simply not enough websites addressing the entry “I am stupid” and I’m trying to sink my consciousness into why this might be the case—and perhaps capitalize on it, if such is possible.

Clearly, a lot of people feel deep inside that they are a lower breed of human and possess the reasoning faculties of a squirrel.  They lumber through life, bogged down by a slow processor doing things that make average and above-average folk grimace with pain. No one wants to admit that they are a dolt for fear of the pervasive blight on their reputation; “Once incompetent, always incompetent” as the famous saying goes.  Our research suggests that stating “Slow Learner” on your resume doesn't bode well for job prospects.

While stupid cannot be fixed, it certainly can be embraced. One can learn to live with it and accept it. The idea that comes to mind is “Self Acceptance”.  Smart people accept themselves…but is this really a shock?!? They sit at their privileged platform of high-mindedness with the repository of human knowledge as well as mental machinery that rivals the speed of light.  Smart people accept themselves, quite frankly, because it is easier (they can do it more quickly too).

When you have positive attributes emanating from your identity, it is hard to feel sorry for yourself.  Dolts, on the other hand, are—by definition—labeled by the most negative trait of all. Being stupid is like being a blind, bullied child. You struggle through life; ideas and concepts are not brought to your threshold of awareness as readily as they are to others. You flounder with math—like adding and subtracting single digit numbers with the help of a calculator. Connecting ideas to arrive at a likely conclusion or an answer to a “why question” is difficult because you can’t readily synthesize patterns that are essentially “smack in the face” to everyone else.

In my sermon here I want to make it clear that if you have found this post by typing in the words “I am incompetent” or “I am stupid” just accept it. Sit back and take it in. Realize that you’re doing everything you can do. Like all the rest of us who come from a lineage of stupid people—or, in my case—a lineage of nothing—we have little recourse.

Sometimes just accepting your dire state of sentience is all it takes to feel better and move forward with this dreary yet expensive state of existence. It might be temporarily painful (and mentally torturous) to deal with people who make you feel bad and unworthy for a trait you likely have little control of in the first place—but just take this in.

Jesus received 39 lashes for not doing anything wrong. As a stupid person, you haven’t done anything wrong either but you bear the brunt of society’s blame. Like Jesus, you are modern society’s scapegoat.

 Smart, quick-thinkers hate you because you are slowing them down at the grocery store as you fumble through your pockets looking for a credit card you never signed up for. They hate you at the traffic intersection because you take an extra 1.3 seconds to register “green light” into your slogging mental processor.  Devious marketers can’t stand you because when they employ their unethical sales tactics on your poor brain and beguile your naive soul they have to deal with the future angst of ripping someone like you off.

Finally, I want to tell all stupid people of the world “Do NOT BE DISCOURAGED” for I came to save you, through my computer screen and make you accept yourself.  No, I didn't send my only son to die for your stupidity (I sent him to die for your sins). I just want you to know that I accept you for who you are and am tolerant of your stupidity—you can’t say this for human beings.

After all, If I made you stupid to begin with, what does that say about me? It would be my own error for designing your defective brain and then letting you run freely with it.

Thank you for listening,

Yours Truly,

God