Short story: Stupid people cannot be good people, or can they?
By emptychair
@innertalks (23742)
Australia
August 14, 2021 1:27am CST
The esteemed Rabbi, Benjimen Akraba, was giving a scholarly talk about goodness to his gathered students.
He told them, that in life, we need knowledge to know what's right, for us to do right.
"You cannot do right without knowing right,"
he said to them.
"This means,"
he then told them,
"that a stupid, dolt, of a person, unintelligent, and feeble of mind, can never be a good person."
"We need brains, a certain degree of intelligence to figure out the right thing to do."
he added, looking pleased with his speech, so far, as he had a self-satisfied smile, on his face.
Just then, the cook walked past, with his dog, following him, on its lead.
The cook, had overheard much of the conversation.
He plucked his courage up then, and he said to the Rabbi:
"Knowledge has nothing to do with goodness, which is the heart's innate knowing, not the learned knowing, or knowledge collected by the mind."
"My dog, here, can be good, if it follows its heart's lead, too."
"Love, followed, ensures we are being good. We do not need knowledge to follow the guiding light of the love in our hearts. We only need eyes to see its shine."
Taken upback by the effrontery of the cook, the Rabbi, looked into himself for an answer.
"Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity."
"The great Chinese Philosopher, Xun Kuang, (310 BC to 237 BC) said that,"
he said, expecting no more argument from the cook.
The inference was that intentional activity takes intelligence to discern what is the best intention to follow.
"My dog has less evil bones in it than what you have,"
the cook replied, as he walked off out of the Synagogue, never to return to such a place, as he knew that the Rabbi, would not allow him to stay there as the cook, after his challenging him so openly, in front of his students, like that.
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
The cook loved his dog, more than what the Rabbi loved his students. This was obvious, to all who were there.
6 people like this
5 responses
@anya12adwi (10292)
• India
14 Aug 21
Good people can be stupid too! May be I am an example to that!
2 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
14 Aug 21
Me too, we can all be stupid, at times, and do foolish things, but that doesn't take away our goodness too.
@anya12adwi (10292)
• India
14 Aug 21
@innertalks Exactly! Sometimes, what may seem good to us, that might seem stupidity to others!
2 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
14 Aug 21
@anya12adwi Yes, goodness can be relative at times.
Especially, if we are a certain religion, like a Christian, what we might see as good, others might really think is stupid.
@Shiva49 (28390)
• Singapore
14 Aug 21
For some their innate goodness is so well ingrained that they are not corrupted by the ways of the world.
The cook's dog has a direct connection to the heart of its master and is then well reciprocated.
No need to analyze much but maintain the heart connection more than outward knowledge that proves specious in matters of love.
Some are trapped within their educational qualifications to lose sight of the reality of the world.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
14 Aug 21
Knowledge does have its uses, but innate goodness does not need knowledge to be lived from.
We also do not need to learn how to love, to love.
Some things like innate goodness, and the connection to love, are inbuilt in us by God.
Knowledge does have to be built up, and acquired mostly from experience, and wisdom then can grow from experiences in the right use of knowledge too, but even here, an innate knowing, a gut feeling, inner guidance, should usually be put ahead of even such knowledged wisdom too.
@Shiva49 (28390)
• Singapore
14 Aug 21
@innertalks I have also observed a take that a life full of love is impractical in a dog-eat-dog world (man-eat-man world) we have created here. It is a nice ideal but that is all there is to it.
I had tried to abide by it but hard-nosed colleagues are more into getting ahead by fair means or foul. I felt a misfit but hardly compromised. I was more a sounding board then for my knowledge and a bit of wisdom bringing in a steadying hand.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
15 Aug 21
@Shiva49 Yes, this is just a practice run for the full life of love that we might live in the next life, but we should at least try to give it our best shot here too, instead of just riding rough-shot over overs around us, trying to live their lives, as well.
A steadying hand is usually a loving hand too, so well done with that, siva.
@topffer (42155)
• France
14 Aug 21
The new testament disagrees also with this rabbi when it tells "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven". Gathering knowledge about what is right is one thing, but a simple mind may feel what is right or wrong, and the cook gave a good lesson to this rabbi.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
14 Aug 21
Thanks.
Yes, even simple people have a conscience, perhaps stronger than the clever minded, where cleverness has largely replaced their conscience, and blocked access to it, and so simple people can discern what is right and wrong too.
2 people like this
@crossbones27 (52994)
• Mojave, California
14 Aug 21
Yeah I agree you can do right being stupid. Its called would you want that to be done to you, so you go no and fix it. I think everyone has been in a predicament stupid or not and go that is just not right I will never do that.
2 people like this
@crossbones27 (52994)
• Mojave, California
14 Aug 21
@innertalks Resources do help make informed decisions, some people just choose to be dumb is what I do think.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
14 Aug 21
@crossbones27 If the intelligent choose to be dumb, are they really being dumb, or doing it for an intelligent reason?
Now, the really dumb can pretend to be intelligent too, but they still remain dumb.
Resources are useful.
If I had had access to proper mentors, better resources, and better guidance, my own life might have gone a whole lot better than it has too.
I made some dumb decisions because of that, even though, I do not think that I am of low intelligence.
But in regards to goodness, if an intelligent person suggests a good decision for a dumb person, sometimes even though they are dumb, they can still appreciate that that is a good decision for them to make.
An intelligent person could probably see that also, but they have the intelligence to reject a good decision, by their being dumb for other reasons too. Perhaps, they are depressed, or emotionally affected, so that they obsessionally stick to the dumb, rather than embracing the good decision.
It is not all cut and dried. A lot of factors are in play here.
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
14 Aug 21
I agree.
Even the stupid can know what is right, or wrong for themselves, but the philosophical point of whether something is good, or not for the world, for example, if organic food production is better than using fertilizers, might be harder for the stupidly low intelligent person to realise.
Like with the covid vaccine, the low intelligent people are usually the ones to protest, and campaign against it, or become anti-vaccineers, because they have not the ability to research properly, and to make a good decision, about it.
2 people like this
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
14 Aug 21
there is no stupid, (technically stupid means unable to speak) or ignorant. There is simply the what of the seen. Perception, what I see, that is the driver.
in this case the value of the cook, was that they saw more than the Rabbi.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
15 Aug 21
Jesus Christ, said that only those with eyes to see can see.
Some people keep their perception only in their minds.
We need to widen our view, and percept things with our hearts too, as the cook did here.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
15 Aug 21
@DocAndersen Yes, the Bible is full of stuff about only seeing with the mind, as the Pharisees did by applying laws literally. When we start seeing from our heart, we move across to seeing through the lens of God's love, then too.
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
15 Aug 21
@innertalks ah, the freedom or limits of what can be seen. Now we speak not of the mind but of the heart!
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