Stupidity Has Its Place

For most of us we pluck away at our daily tasks without any thought about the bigger picture. By the bigger picture I actually mean the 'biggest' picture and that would be evolution of our species as a whole. But in reality the biggest picture is really like a mosaic...millions of tiny tiles, or pictures, working in concert to create the full image. That's how I wrap my mind around the whole concept. To carry the point even further I think that stupidity has a necessary place in evolution as well. I'll try to explain with a story...

Okay, so there were these three Cavemen. Now they were the wandering Nomadic type so basically they were looking for a safe warm place to set up camp this particular prehistoric evening. They came upon a steep rising mound and could feel the heat radiating from the crusty surface. As they scaled the rocky mound the heat increased. Very toasty, they thought to themselves and pushed on. Once they reached the top and could see the lip of a crater they stopped dead in their tracks. One brave soul, we'll call him UGG, stepped forward to investigate. He shuffled to the charred opening and peered down inside. This is great...he thought to himself, and as he turned to wave the others forward the crumbly lip gave way and UGG disappeared followed by a 'hiss' and a ribbon of steam. The other two Cavemen looked at each other backed away from the edge a few feet and began to set up camp. So basically as a whole we 'push the envelope' until disaster then we re-evaluate and modify our behavior. And my guess is that this is how it's been since the beginning of time. Sometimes bravery is really stupidity but as you can see from my historic account stupidity has its place. And in order to keep stupidity alive and well we mislabel it as bravery so as to keep a steady flow of 'volunteers' (see UGG). In fact we have even developed a system of accolades, such as medals and bestowed honours, usually posthumously.

For my picture today I have several individuals building a water feature. This is no doubt going to be gorgeous when complete. These individuals are really 'pushing the envelope' with this design/construction method. But in order to place the five ton capstone correctly they'll have to make sure the support rock does not shift when they lower it. They are going to need a 'volunteer'...see where I'm going with this?