Saturday 13 October 2001

Pic of the day: Kitchen party! Screenshot from The Sims.

Foolishness

When I was young, there was this saying among Smith's Friends: "Sin makes people stupid." There is certainly truth in that. Actually I suspect that any strong desire or "instinct", whether sinful or not, can make people temporarily stupid. It just so happens that most of them are sins, in our culture at least.

Tonight is Saturday night, one of the two nights each week designated to drunkenness and debauchery here in Norway. Not by everyone, but I'd say by a majority of the people. This area where I live is pretty well off, but you can still hear the over-loud music and the incoherent whining voices each weekend.

I don't think there is any reason to go into detail concerning all the stupidity that flows from pleasure drugs, including and not least the common alcohol. The quantities necessary to make any emotional impact also guarantee that logic and long term planning are stunned for the duration. This costs quite a few lives and limbs as time marches on, but it seems people find this an acceptable cost. If a virus planted by terrorists had claimed such a cost in human lives and misery, there would be an outcry like no one has heard before. But when some drunken driver runs over an innocent bystander, that's just too bad. Better luck next time.

***

Some months ago, there was a question to a scientific magazine: "Why do men behave stupid around pretty women?" That is indeed a good question. The answer was to the tune that men need to breed; but this is not a good answer. One would suppose that a large number of women would prefer men who don't behave like fools. Certainly this would make sense to anyone who believes in evolution: Foolish fathers means a higher chance of foolish children, who fall down from the branches and are eaten by predators. Now one could argue that the logic would be that these men have survived to adult age even though they are foolish, so they must be superior in some way. But the non-foolish men have also survived, and in addition they stand a good chance of continuing that way for a long time. Certainly this should look more attractive.

My best guess would be that the strutting and talking in a too loud voice etc is a remnant from some instinctive mating ritual, much like the intricate mating dances of many birds. The same goes for the weird things women do, tossing their head and stuff. The women are just less obvious about it for some reason. (This may be why men don't notice a woman's interest, unless she gets a friend of a friend to tell them outright.)

***

Luckily most parents also have a strong desire to protect their offspring. It's not just bears, but humans too. And as you can expect by now, you can look in vain for any wisdom when you talk to a parent about its child. The slightest indication that their child may be of less than stellar quality will be rewarded by silent hostility in the best case, but outright violence is not improbable either. There is no way their little gold piece may have been the cause of any trouble: It must necessarily be someone else's fault!

It's been a while, but I seem to remember a Norwegian study show that 6% of parents believed their child performed below average in school. Now in all fairness, average is pretty wide, especially here in Norway. But still, food for thought.

At least this attitude changes when the children become teenagers. But then again, the teenagers themselves are pretty much a bundle of wild and poorly controlled desires for anything from chocolate to sex, but especially and above all attention. It should come as no surprise that a random teen can rack up a lot of foolishness in short time. Then again, those who survive presumably learn something from it.

***

But not only sinful lusts make people foolish. Faith also makes men into fools, as the Christian apostle Paul says: "We are fools for the sake of Christ, while you are wise." These foolish believers are perfectly willing to let go of their rights, their possessions, or in the worst case even their lives, because of their unquenchable desire for an ever deeper union with their god. And because of their ever growing love for their fellow man.

And in truth, there is not always much wisdom in a newly converted believer, when he goes glassy-eyed along the street trying to push tracts on random bystanders and tell them the Good News. But once again, give them some time. We all learn from our mistakes; and a lucky few are even able to learn from others'.