ARGUE WITH IDIOTS, SOMETIMES

 

“Raise your words (logic) not your voice.

It’s rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”

Rumi

 

We need wit and wisdom, both, to survive in this world… To survive fools and idiots, to be precise!

Two days ago, when I wrote the blog – ‘Don’t Argue with Idiots’, it’s instantly liked by many of my readers. Earlier that day, my friend, Neha, had posted on FB this quote…

“Don’t argue with idiots.

They will drag you down to their level.”

 

Neha had stopped with that much. Later, many of my friends sent to me the full quote:

 

“Don’t argue with idiots.

They will drag you down to their level,

and they will beat you with their experience.”

 

Most of us have good experience of this wresting with idiots. I can hear some of you correcting me, saying - ‘wresting with pigs’…

Pigs love – thoroughly enjoy – wresting in filth.  

Do you?

If not, stay off!

That’s the message of my last blog. All of us have had unpleasant experience of wresting with idiots and coming out not only filthy, but also battered.

So, now, when such arguments are about to brew, we can easily sense the impending doom… and we go about advising others: “Hello, don’t argue with idiot – the pigs!” 

But, today, my friend, Mamta, sent her agreement with a caveat:

“True. But, from my personal experience, I know that if you let it go every time, you’ll be subjected to their nonsense, nonstop. So, once in a while, you have to strike back if only to shut them up. Only wine improves with age, not idiots.”

You see, Mamta won’t let pigs go scot-free every time… She won’t suffer their nonsense, nonstop!

I loved Mamta’s fighting spirit… Bhaisaab,  Laaton ke bhoot baaton se nahi maante!’

Bravo!

We need Neha and Mamta, both, to deal with the idiots of this world.

Once, when Mulla Nasruddin was busy giving a massage to his beloved donkey, one such idiot – a scholar - approached him and said:

“Mulla, people say you have all the knowledge in the world. Can you tell me where the centre of Earth is?”

Continuing to massage his donkey, Mulla said confidently, “Yes, I can.”

“Show me where it is,” insisted the scholar.

“There, right under the left foot (hind leg) of my donkey,” Mulla asserted.

“How can you be so sure?” questioned the scholar.

“If you doubt my knowledge, you can please check it for yourself, right there!”

Well, nobody tells us if the scholar had bent down to check it!

You see, in life, some battles are best fought, and some battles are best left alone… Wit and wisdom, both, are needed to learn that ‘fine art of fighting without fighting’. Remember the famous boat scene in Bruce Lee’s ‘Enter the Dragon’?

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic's.: Source unknown

Video: Enter the Dragon/SidTheFish