Even though I have decided to take RJsCorner in a different direction, I don’t want to leave the “Understanding Stupidity” series without a personal wrap up.

The major point I have learned from this series is that mankind has been plagued with stupidity from its very start. Aristotle had things to say about stupidity in his time, and of course, with the way the world is going now it is full of it still. I can only pray that it doesn’t get as bad as it was during Hitler’s time.

The question entering this series was “how do you convince people to stop being stupid”? What I came away with is that you can’t. You simply can’t convince a person that he is doing stupid things that will in the end harm him, possibly greatly. The only way to conquer stupidity is to push it into the background of life. That takes action from those of us who still have enough common sense to not cut off our nose to spite our face.

The McCarthy years was my first exposure to mass stupidity. McCarthy ranted for four years about how Communist had taken over America. During those four years, he failed to find anyone to attach his accusation to. Finally, when a fellow senator said to him, “Have you no shame!!” killed that age of stupidity.

The Republican Party finally gained it senses and voted overwhelmingly to censure McCarthy and remove all his power. We can only hope and pray that they can eventually muster up the courage to do the same for these times.