Have you ever wondered what the word “idiot” means?
This word has a very ancient origin and an even more extraordinary history!
You see, the ancient Greeks had a curious little word: “idiotes” (from which the word “idiot” is derived).
“Idiotes” in the Greek world stood for the private man, the man who thinks only of his own little garden.
He cares nothing for looking beyond the palm of his own nose, fears what he does not know, despises what he is not familiar with.
But what does this have to do with stupidity?
Behold, one day Socrates was approached by a man who said to him:
“I have something important to tell you.”
“One moment,” Socrates interrupted him, “First I would like to ask you three questions. Where did you hear this?”
“I heard it around. Everyone says so.”
“All right. Are you certain of what you claim?”
“I am absolutely certain!”
“I’ll ask you one last question then, if I brought you those who could disprove your tale, would you be willing to listen?”
“Why would I do that!” the increasingly annoyed man answered him, “It would be a waste of time!”
Socrates then turned to his disciple: “You see, this man wants to report to me something that is on everyone’s lips, something of which he is absolutely certain, and he is not willing to listen to anyone who might question it.
There, this man is an idiot!”
Well, after almost two millennia the situation is the same:
“they said it on TV”, “everyone says it” are the phrases I hear most often! Along with “I’m sure of it!”.
Few think, question, hypothesise; instead, everyone knows and affirms.
Ours is the society of absolute certainties, a society that has made idiocy an art and arrogance a way of life.
There are people who are walls. Literally. It is useless to talk, to argue, to try to explain: they are right and you are always wrong.
But you know what?
When I’m about to lose my patience, I think back to the words of Socrates: He knows nothing, he thinks he knows everything, and he is convinced he is right: behold, this man is an idiot!