ClydeStyle

Forrest Gump was stupid. He had become accustom to the word because of the people who observed his behavior constantly gave him this label. Hollywood made an entire movie about being stupid.

But they didn’t stop there. What gave the movie its brilliance was the fact that things seemed to workout just fine for Gump as if a greater power had the “fix” in for him. They made the story very relatable, by putting it smack dab in the middle of one of the most prolific times in American history. They gave scenarios that could have been any of us. We can all relate to a time where inspite of our foolishness things worked out like they did for Forrest. And we would like to believe that if someone’s heart is right and pure, things would workout for them eventually as well.

To live your life in the hope that this is true would be — well, stupid yet we see so many examples of folks doing exactly that.

Nobody plans to mess up their life but sometimes that’s exactly what it looks like. We become stupid to impress the opposite sex, to take a non existing shortcut to success, to avoid hard work, and to avoid looking stupid.

Stupid is defined as having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense. So our prisons are full of people who are stupid. The court system hears and sees a lot of stupid people. And social media has become a huge platform for stupid people — just make a comment about religion or politics and the stupid parade begins.

The word stupid did not exist until late in the 16th century so that explains why the word is not in the original King James bible, but the concept is there. The word consistently used for stupid is dull. The word appears 29 times in the sacred text and that’s within 13 different translations. The idea of something becoming dull is the idea of stupid. It’s not sharp and pristine, its dull and unappealing. But the original definition is that something happened to make you dull — you didn’t just start off that way. As the evolution of the word continued, today you can be stupid, or dull without any help.

In Gen. 29:17, one translation describes Leah’s eyes as weak and dull looking, but it says Rachel’s are beautiful and attractive. There has always been this comparison of these two sisters and for lack of a better term Leah here is described as stupid.

Gen. 49:12 gives the cause and effect idea saying, “His eyes are dull from wine and his teeth white from milk.”

So if stupid is as stupid does — which is to say that an intelligent person who does stupid things, is still stupid — this was obviously Forrest’s way of admitting he was stupid and letting you know that you can be stupid too.

Let’s hope we all spend more time “with” stupid than we do being stupid.

We live in a country that thrives in the unknown. Not only is it not fashionable to truly be in the know, but ignorance is celebrated.

We vote with very little knowledge. We make purchases with limited Intel and we date and get close to people we just met.

We are far too trusting and then will be the first to cry foul when something happens. For example, when someone you never met contacts you and says they are your grandchild and they are in trouble and need you to send money. Then they tell you not to tell their parents. This is the latest scam on seniors. Or my favorite, there is a prince in a foreign country that promises you millions to help them out with thousands — this only works in the land of the greedy.

Then we have the protests.

How do you protest the rights of giraffes being hunted and killed, but say nothing when an unarmed black man is killed by police?

How do you protect animal rights but care less about how cows, pigs and chickens are doped up and slaughtered in America?

How do you protest pedophilia here in the states but ignore the fact that our military is helping foreign governments who allow the prosecution of kids? (i.e. 10 year old boys in Afghanistan called Bacha Bazi).

We are extremely naive with many things. Our latest craze is DNA kits. When this science became affordable to the masses I imagined our government using it to reassure if those accused of rape really did it. We could now be far more sure than ever before with DNA testing but instead we are marketing it to people with apparently too much time on their hands. All of these people who have a heritage are interested now in knowing more about their heritage. But never was it important to them to make sure accurate records were kept on slaves or that blacks could be reattached to their heritage because slavery was so brutal. I mean if our heritage is that important wouldn’t we want everyone to know about their own?

Whatever you feel about President Donald J Trump, history teaches us that he is not even in the top 10 of the worst presidents. But what is worse is that most Americans cannot name the worst 5 presidents we have had. Then of course it depends on your preference.

The end of slavery was promised after the revolutionary war. The first man to die for the flag was a black man (Crispus Attucks). The first 10 presidents had no lobbyists to fight with and were of the most educated in the land but none of them thought to make good on that promise.

Bank CEOs crash our market and destroy our economy and they get a bailout in return — thanks Obama! The exact same thing happens in Iceland and all the CEOs involved go to jail! Our country has fought to ensure slaves do get reparations for the crimes America has carried out against them, but holocaust survivors get reparations right now along with the Native Americans.

This sad commentary should make us think about the things we protest. It should make us examine ourselves before we join a protest of a double standard. Or will we just allow ignorance to be bliss?

We live in a society that props up certain individuals for their talent, wealth, success, looks and other attributes. There is a need to create superman because psychologically we need to know/see the best version of ourselves.

Many of us desire to either be superman or be his sidekick. We cherish this superman version of ourselves and it gives us hope.

Idols are created.

There was a choice involved in that creation and there was an obsession. When these “supermen” show that they are not so “super” we tend to forget who made them. We forget who elevated their gift to a god-like level and why. This never happens without coveteousness. Something to be had or obtained by the admirer that makes them blind to the dangers of idolizing mankind.

Once idolizing starts, abuse is imminent. The only thing necessary at this point for abuse is access. When access is granted, abuse is possible.

From the other direction, superman believes he is superman. He believes he can fly! He believes that the laws cannot contain him. He believes that his money and power will protect him. He believes his sins are forgiven. He hides behind his gifts and other idolaters stand ready to replace the former. Literally people are rushing toward abuse and with every victim, there is a new one in the back awaiting their turn to be abused.

Onlookers who are not caught up in that version of superman always want to judge. It’s easy for them to say, “how could they be so stupid!” “How could they not know?” “Who in their right mind would do that?!”

And it’s never that simple.

We underestimate our need to see and be the best version of ourselves. We struggle with the pursuit of success and we have been told to dream big and reach for the stars. In the hunt for that elite status we are able to minimize the warning signs. And then when we become a victim, we want others to be outraged with us. Then we seek great revenge and want to see the now debunked superman destroyed so we turn to social media.

The problem with social media is that just about everybody has an opinion and everybody has their own idol. The only way to stop this blood cycle of horror and eliminate the need to create a caped crusader is to recognize the one and only true superman — Jesus.