I’m surrounded by idiots
- Martyn Foster
- Oct 31
- 3 min read
It’s more likely to be the opposite.
In this day and age where so many people think they’re the greatest there’s ever been, the hubris wins out over the humility. What I would like to encourage this week is to stop thinking how you can always be right and start thinking how you could be wrong. I guess, in all my naivety, I thought people did this on a regular basis like I do, but as it turns out, no. Instead, we have a society of people thinking they’re surrounded by idiots without thinking how they could be the idiot.
I’ve regularly joked to myself throughout this writing venture of mine that I’m selling the unsellable – humility, responsibility, critical thinking and genuine improvement. In my very first article I wrote about how you must be willing to be the fool before you can become the master, but it seems people nowadays think they can skip steps, use hacks, or are somehow inherently blessed with knowledge. It’s the Dunning-Kruger effect writ large – people of low ability overestimating their competence.
“You always own the option of having no opinion.” – Marcus Aurelius
Social media is great at making one feel they’re surrounded by idiots – both with the sheer amount of stupid people AND the elevation of certain people. The “I have a massive following therefore I must be a genius!” is a prime example of hubris. There are plenty of examples of people doing dumb shit which makes us feel good/better about ourselves. There are plenty of examples of people doing wrong which makes us feel morally superior. However, is it all like the Stealers Wheel sang?
“Clowns to the left of me! Jokers to the right! Here I am stuck in the middle with you.”
Before anyone says it, this isn’t an attempt to paint the political centre or “centrists” as always being correct. Like I said at the beginning, I believe it’s critical and healthy to examine the ways in which we could be or indeed are, wrong, rather than to continue on mindlessly and/or in denial. From an outsider’s perspective, politics does feel a lot like Scar from The Lion King – scheming and feeling like I’m surrounded by idiots.
We have growing sub-factions of society who think they’re inherently right or smarter than others. These people don’t care how wrong other people think they are because everybody else are fools to them. Increasingly, people want to talk (or shout) at people and not discuss with people. Look, there’s always been a constant battle between tradition and progress – of which there are pitfalls of too much of either – but now it feels dialled up to 11 where people see conceding points to (or even learning or entertaining the ideas of) the other side as a betrayal of the highest order deserving to be shunned and outcasted from the tribe.
It's about learning and re-learning the knowledge and wisdom of the past while being simultaneously open to new information, experiences and possibilities. This is a lot easier than it sounds because we are naturally drawn to particular ways of life, and who really wants to put themselves through the fire and brimstone as to what they think and feel and why?
Dostoevsky, who is probably my favourite author, one of his more notable works was “The Idiot”, a story centred around the character of Prince Myshkin, a Christ-like figure, a man of a beautiful pure soul but still human and yet so at odds with the people in society around him. In essence, “The Idiot” is surrounded by idiots, but they cannot see it for they do not wish to open their eyes, ears and hearts.
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