“Stupid is as stupid does.”

In the movie Forest Gump, Tom Hanks’s simpleminded sage shared these words of wisdom from his mother with people who questioned his intelligence.

The saying expressed a profound truth: we should judge a person’s intelligence by their actions, not their apparent cognitive sophistication.

By this metric, the world abounds in brilliant fools.

I would argue we could add an additional principle.

Stupid is as stupid wants to do.

The problem with stupid is not just that you do dumb things. It’s that you don’t learn from your mistakes. So you follow them with more dumb things. You plan dumb things. You aspire to dumb things. And when you do them, you incorrectly assess them as effective.

Dumb things are your thing.

It’s a good way to stay stupid.

The Book of Proverbs has a lot to say about fools.

Proverbs 1:20-33 features an exasperated plea to fools from the voice of an anthropormphized wisdom.

She says this:

^“22 “Foolish people! How long do you want to be foolish? How long will you enjoy making fun of knowledge? Will you never learn?”

She pleads with them to listen, but acknowledging that they will not, she adds:

^“30 You have never wanted my advice or paid any attention when I corrected you. ³¹ So then, you will get what you deserve, and your own actions will make you sick. ³² Inexperienced people die because they reject wisdom. Stupid people are destroyed by their own lack of concern. ³³ But whoever listens to me will have security. He will be safe, with no reason to be afraid.”

We get in plenty of trouble over the course of our lives. Rarely, however, does it come without at least one decision on our part. We may encounter predatory people. We may be dealing with an unfair system. We make a wrong move (or several) and pay for it.

The problem with the fool is that he is enjoying himself.

1. He fights battles he is unaware of losing. He measures his successes in his enemy’s pain, and not in his own quality of life.

2. He attacks people without realizing he is harming himself. He enjoys making you suffer without realizing he is suffering as a result. He revels in winning gutter fights without realizing that it forces him to live in the gutter.

3. He spreads toxicity without realizing he is getting the most sick. He smugly pokes holes in his own ship and mocks the people around him who are scared to sink. He mistakes survival instincts for weakness.

4. He endangers his life out of ignorance. He thinks he can swim, though he can’t. He thinks drowning is a myth when it’s quite real.

5. He destroys himself because he thinks what he’s doing is working. He stands proudly on that sinking ship, mocking people who have retreated to safety, without realizing they are now safe, and he is still headed for death.

None of this works. It always ends badly for the fool. But consequences may take time to manifest. Gifted liars can manipulate nearly everybody for a while. Career criminals can have a good run.

The fool sinks slowly, but he will talk trash the whole way down, until his lips hit the water.

But the person who listens to wisdom will be safe.

The choice, as always, is ours.

Would we rather be legendary troublemakers who stick it to our enemies against an epic hurricane backdrop, or would we rather be still standing when the storm ends?

It’s up to you.

Choose wisely.

(Photo Credit: Sachin Bharti)

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