Everyone, we are all idiots.
:-D
What's going through my head, you may ask? The act of taking pieces of the past to make sense of an outcome. Before I explain any further, let me bring up some examples:
Idiot Examples
1) The outcome of a close football game. Lets say the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Baltmore Ravens 27-24 (they did, but who cares). The ball game was tied, 17-17, and that's all I saw. I figured it was a very close game. I saw the highlights this morning and all I saw was how GREAT the chiefs played, with their offensive schemes and blocking, their passing, running, defensive stopping, everything. What the heck?!?! They won by a mere 3 points, and the hilights showed them diminating the game. I do believe the numbers also point to the Chiefs edging out the Ravens, but come on, people, it was a 3-point victory for them.
2) Or how about another close football game, one which I never saw or seen highlights, but know darn well what most likely has happened. Northwestern Wildcats beat the Ohio State Buckeyes in overtime. The Wildcats, huge underdogs to the National Champ Buckeyes, came out with a win. All of a sudden, the Wildcats coach is interviewed, asked what he told his team going into the game, all week, pregame, at half time, going into overtime, etc. Or the players attitude going into the game, etc. Everything will point to how they came to win, how they "pulled together, remembered the past, etc." Or how about the losers? The Buckeyes must have said "Well we just didn't come on fire, didn't come to win, they wanted it more." Baloney! What if Nugent, the kicker for OSU didn't miss the field goal in overtime? All of a sudden each team would be digging the opposite up, how OSU was so driven to the end, and how the Wildcats just didn't try hard enough. All baloney!
3) Don't like football? How about 9/11? Oh yes, we do remember 9/11. How could we not. Anyway, when we look back previous to the tragic events, we are the idoits who say, "Well if Bush would have seen all the signs that lead up to the attack" mumbo crap!
4) Car accident: "Well my boss had ticked me off and I wasn't paying as much attention to the opposing traffic as I usually have been...." shut up, ya idiot. Like you haven't been ticked off before. Pshh.
5) Failed a final? Stinkin relationship problems
6) Aced a final? Ah, you knew it all along, you're gifted, blah blah.
Give me a break people, we are all idiots who pick apart the past, mix and match it up to try and make sense of outcomes, whether it be football games, tragic events, or even out own futures. Don't you get it? This is the "Monday morning quartback syndrome" where we say we could have done better because THEY made stupid mistakes. "We could have done a better job at presidency, at being a boyfriend/girlfriend, we could have done better at driving, etc etc." We are a people who just love to think of ourselves better than others, by thinking we would make better decisions, raise our children better than others, work job duties better than THEY do.
Are you in the better 50% of the population? Of course you are...
Did you know that out of a survey given to a student body when asked to raise ther hand if they believed thay would graduate in the top 50% of their class, over 90% raised their hand? Funny, isn't it? We are a people who always think we are better than the other person. Idiots!
Moi Aussi...
Oh, I definitely fall into this, too. I'm a person. :-D And yes, I do think I could have kicked the ball better, raised children better, graduated in the top 50%, etc etc. Could it be an internal drive that does this to us, or simply a matter of self-pride? To clear up this confusion, and to keep it simple, we're idiots living in a world of idiots.
Real Winners vs. Real Losers
There's a bright side to this. We're all in this together. Relatively speaking, we're all idiots, hence, no one's better, no one's worse (generalization, granted). There is something, however, that sets us apart, how to determine the real winners and the real losers.
You Control Your Efforts
I could write out the Benjamin Franklin writing about the "Man in the Arena" where only the man who has practiced and competed and has either lost or won truly knows the cost of what he put in, and not the mere spectator/critic (idiot). Rather, I will bring out something said by I believe John Wooden (whatever his name is), the great NCAA basketball coach that won 7 or so straight titles.... He asked his players to grade themselves after every practice, after every game, and not taking the score or outcome into consideration. Their efforts would be graded. Sure, they may have been out-talented, or shorter, or clower, or less accurate, etc, but those were things that was not controlled by effort. Their effort was graded, and after each game, they were to look at their coach and tell him if they gave 100%. The film would prove it. If they did, they were truly winners. If they at any time, even in one play, decided to stop short, not reach high enough, decided to slack just one bit, that was an effort slacking, something that is not controlled by talent, rather, their own efforts. Hence, they then "failed for the moment."
Taking this to our idiot people... those quarterbacks and kickers, drivers, workers, president, etc... if they can grade themselves out at 100% effort, regardless of talent, and still came out with the mistake/poor outcome, they can agree it was begond anything they can control, and accept the loss (without idiots needing to mix and match the past to determine the cause of the outcome).
I'm an Idiot, and a Loser :-D
You know what I'm saying people? We're all idiots, we all see things in a different light. What we need to do is give it our all, either in typing this journal entry (which I know I can take the extra 5 minutes and proof-read it for errors which I know most likely exist), but I don't. I'm fully aware at where I stand. Hence, I can take the responsibility of the outcome through my slacking. Same goes for every instance in life. If this entry gets published and I get the Pulitzer prize for it, I have absolutely no reason to start acting like an idiot and start saying, "Well I owe it to the stress from idiots I deal weith on a daily basis" or "Well my 3rd grade teacher always did say I had a knack for writing" or "Well I really tried hard at it." Baloney!
Just Me Venting
I love venting. I used to hate long entries, as they intimidate others from reading them (myself included). However, I just can't limit my venting. I feel as if I'm outvented for the moment.
Until "And another thing..." :-)
Mark
