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The following first appeared in the private email list IVy-subscribers,
which was available to all those who subscribed to the
printed magazine, International Viewpoints.
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The mills of God grind slowly
by Phil Spickler
30 Nov 00

       Here's an idiotic aphorism:
   Regarding idiots, it takes one to know one.

      Recovering one's native idiothood is not as easy a proposition as it
sounds, since most of us who have been in the human-potential movement, at
least that phase of it that got going after World War II, have more or less
been brainwashed to one degree or another with a rather intense barrage of
ideas and expressions about how wonderful we really are, to the point where
we become blinded to the other side of that coin and thus remain in denial of
some very obvious attributes of us Earth peoples that are all too evident to
outside observers.

       However, and as previously stated, in theory or in truth, combining an
immortal nothingness with a very highly evolved stimulus-response biological
machine that is driven by the urge to survive leads to very few doubts as to
the amount of idiocy which this combination will incur.  The very strange
institutions that get designed by the offspring of such a combination bear
witness to this prophecy.

       Thetans can and do easily afford being extremely foolish and stupid.
You could say they have nothing to lose, and all the time in any of the
created universes to lose it in.  That's what comes of being indestructible.
The ambitions and games of immortals are pretty terrifying, from both a human
standpoint and of course from a physical-body standpoint, because when
immortals play, humans, human bodies, and the bodies and lives of other
species usually die in large numbers, and not necessarily pleasantly, which
is why us idiotic human beings always say on the one hand we want a safe,
quiet, decent, reasonable world, but on the other hand usually end up
supporting the kinds of people, or beings I should say, who don't have the
slightest interest in such a world -- in other words, the kind of players and
the kinds of games they would play if we're talking about deathless immortals
who generally look upon masses of human beings the human beings might look
upon the ants of an anthill.

       All of the above is a closely-guarded secret, and the only evidences
we have for it are the wondrous events of the 20th century, where hundreds of
millions of fellow idiots killed one another over a few grubby ideas plus
differently designed flags and the belief that their cause was just.

        I think the 20th century, since it's so recent in most of our
memories, is certainly filled with more good old-fashioned idiocy and more
frequent expressions of it than a lot of other centuries put together.  And
so I will once again attempt to make the point that as long as idiots go
around in denial about their own idiocy, individual and collective, we shall
continue to be dramatizing idiots.

       Another idiotic aphorism is that the idiocy of our species is neither
good nor bad: it just is, and that becoming comfortable with the state gives
one a chance to reverse vectors for awhile, blow a lot of ridges that have
gotten formed by going in a certain direction too long, and will definitely
raise one's sense of affinity with oneself, rather than concentrating on all
the times we've failed not to be stupid and not to be foolish.

       Well, in closing this brief addition to Idiotology (the study of
idiots and idiocy), I'd like to say I've received some pretty idiotic offline
messages from a few folks who mostly find it very difficult to think of
themselves as being foolish and stupid, and think that I really AM an idiot
(someone who is foolish and stupid) for suggesting that these attributes, or
abilities if you will, are native and normal to our species.  As the flounder
of Idiotology, I take a certain pride in having consciously achieved
idiothood, and I have a bracelet that says "No. 1" on it in case anybody
requires proof of my attainment.

      Thanks to Ray Krenik for his kind thoughts regarding the possibilities
for this new -ology, who realizes that you can't be too foolish or too stupid
along the way.

        Best regards from your #1 idiot --
        Philippus