"Looking smart!" You lap up the comment with a glee unmatched even by the TV series of the same name.
Is it really so important to 'be' smart and more importantly, 'look' the part? It sets me rolling on a path to decipher the differences between the Smart Alecs and the Foolish Peters of this world. The Alecs have it good initially, the claps of schoolteachers and the laps of mummies, a generous salary, an indulgent boss, and a preening girlfriend. Then the pressures build up, the expectations skyrocket and the demands quadruple.
Contrary to popular opinion, it is not always wise to project yourself as smart and intelligent. The more capable you project yourself, the greater the onus to prove yourself worthy every single time and be a picture of sanity and sagacity forever. The challenge to maintain your gray matter in peak condition can be exceedingly taxing at times. Keeping yourself abreast with the changing winds and the meandering currents in the ocean of knowledge is no mean task!
It is in this context that the stress-free life of the fabulously foolish folks can be envied. They can be just themselves...normal, grounded, partially ignorant, funny at whim, openly inquisitive at times and completely imprudent at other times, rejecting the expected standards of intelligence. This elite group has members from all cross sections of society and cuts across the gender barrier. It can be anyone....an ordinary office or college goer, an average shopkeeper or a self-contained homemaker or a retiree.
Well! What are the perks of being Fabulously Foolish?
For one, you live life on your terms. You are carefree. You don't live to please people. You don't have to 'be' smart or 'act' smart all the time. Ignorance is bliss and who better to testify to this than our FF. You don't give opinions about issues not concerning you.You avoid trouble and confrontations. You are forgiven all misdeeds and faults because you are, after all ....'foolish' !!
Another category is of Smart Alecs pretending to be foolish to suit their purposes. They are the cunning and conniving foxes hiding under the garb of simplicity and faking foolishness for ulterior motives. They plot and plan their own games and if it backfires they feign innocence and pass the buck to their sweet foolish selves which erred unknowingly. Normally such tribes aren't taken seriously because the human mind is conditioned to be cautioned and challenged by intelligence and ingenuity but ignore and overlook the witless and fatuous lot. This tendency abets the nefarious mindset of wily folks.
In stark contrast to the Fake Foolish are the genuine ones, those lovable, trusting simpletons born with a silver spoon. They are fabulously rich and fabulously foolish too. They have a coterie of chamchas and Man Fridays around them. They thrive on sycophantic chatter and can be likened to the Emperor-with-no-clothes.
A lot of so-called intelligent crop has grown recently courtesy the blessings of Baba Internet. The homilies and sermons are coming our way at breakneck speed. Every Tom Dick and Harry is now a preacher teacher. It's easier to pass on knowledge especially when it's abundant and freely available. Jai Ho, Whatsapp! It is a breathless time catching up with the world buried under the information onslaught. There no time to pause or ponder. No urge to internalise. No knack to sift the sacred from the profane. Just playing carriers of 'passing the parcel' of borrowed knowledge (real or fake) and thriving on it, inadvertently giving rise to the faux news syndrome.
The challenge is to remain 'intelligently innocent' so that you retain rational mindset without having to surrender your soul's simplicity at devil's doorstep.
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