We’re all idiots

I was first directed to John Cole when he was still largely a generic right-wing warblogger. He was taking a break to take the piss out of some Catholic functionary who had denied communion to some little girl over an arcane and probably ridiculous point of theological legerdemain, and after some glancing around I noticed he was also taking the piss out of people who thought Terri Schiavo was one favorable ruling away from jumping out of bed and playing lacrosse.  And he was turning on the GOP with the sort of savagery normally reserved for the dirtiest and filthiest of hippies because they could just not let this woman die in peace when there was religious-politics hay to be made from it.  And that was the tipping point.

Nine years on, John Cole isn’t really a liberal at all.  He’s just a regular guy who found the ground shifting beneath him and making him a supporter of Democrats without any fundamental change in his worldview or approach…with one exception. He acknowledges now that he is an idiot, which he was unwilling to do when he was blindly backing the Bush administration’s charge into Iraq.  But then, he tends not to candy-coat very much…including the fact that he is an alcoholic and needs help.

His attempts to get into rehab were by turns hilarious and horrifying, because the American health care system is not equipped to deal with someone who walks into the ER and says “I am drinking myself to death and I need your help to prevent it.”  It took about five tries for him to be admitted into a facility for detox, but he got there eventually, and is now nine or ten days sober with a more traditional 28-day rehab stint coming up.

I would have liked to have a beer with this guy, but I would settle for a nice Coke Zero or something, because he is an interesting dude.  Gulf War I veteran, now teaching college somewhere in West Virginia, sponsor of a fraternity which appears to be less the typical douchebags and more just a bunch of guys who he is trying to make less knuckleheaded.  Not a guy who puts on a lot of airs. The sort who goes into Macy’s and asks “where’s the fat guy section?”  Although given that he dropped 20 pounds in the first 8 days of hospital-enforced sobriety (pancreatitis is hell) that may not be a thing for long.

Here’s the point of all this: the guy knows he’s an idiot. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, because we’re all idiots.  I’m smarter than 99.95% of everyone in this country, and I’m an idiot. I wouldn’t know where to start changing the oil on my Rabbit, after always changing my own throughout high school and college.  I can’t fix anything in the house.  My knowledge of history outside of England from about 1065 to the Revolution and the US after that is feeble at best. I haven’t had a firm grip on mainstream pop culture in a decade or so.  If I try to cook anything that doesn’t involve a mix or throwing meat on a grill, I’m liable to burn the house down. There are gaps in my knowledge that leave me sub-functional as an ordinary human being.

We’re all idiots. The trick is knowing where your shortcomings are and then being able to patch them over.  Either know where the takeout places are, or marry someone who can handle the strategic finances, or buy a bike that never needs to be maintained other than putting air in the tires.  Possibly the most important part of being a grown mature functioning adult is to know the ways in which you are an idiot and do what is necessary to mitigate it.  A lot of people are very very bad at that.

Fortunately, Cole isn’t. Good luck, dude.

One Reply to “We’re all idiots”

  1. “We’re all idiots. The trick is knowing where your shortcomings are and then being able to patch them over. Either know where the takeout places are, or marry someone who can handle the strategic finances, or buy a bike that never needs to be maintained other than putting air in the tires. Possibly the most important part of being a grown mature functioning adult is to know the ways in which you are an idiot and do what is necessary to mitigate it. A lot of people are very very bad at that.”

    Yuuuuup. I think it’s also about cooperating with others so that you each complement each other’s shortcomings. This is true for personal as well as professional relationships. I truly believe in hiring people to work for you who are smarter than you. But it’s more about *how* are they smart. They need to be smart in areas where you’re an idiot. I believe this why you and I work together so well. =)

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