“
Let us become servants in order to be leaders.
”
”
Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Idiot)
“
There is no quarrel between science and spirituality. I often hear people of science trying to use it to prove the nonexistence of the spiritual, but I simply can't see a chasm in between the two. What is spiritual produces what is scientific and when science is used to disprove the spiritual, it's always done with the intent to do so; a personal contempt. As a result, scientists today only prove their inferiority to the great founding fathers of the sciences who were practitioners of alchemy. Today's science is washed-out and scrubbed-down and robbed of everything mystical and spiritual, a knowledge born of contempt and discontent. Or perhaps, there are a few who wish to keep those secrets to themselves and serve everyone else up with a tasteless version of science and the idiots of today blindly follow their equally blind leaders.
”
”
C. JoyBell C.
“
The man with the gray eyes is a born leader, and only an idiot would mistake him for anything else.
”
”
Amanda Bouchet (A Promise of Fire (Kingmaker Chronicles, #1))
“
Remember the lessons of history. Remember how often whole peoples have allowed themselves to be persuaded to go to war by ‘wise’ men—and then been utterly destroyed by the very enemy they agreed to attack! Remember how many statesmen have helped raise new leadership to power—and then been overthrown by their own protégés! Remember how often leaders have chosen to treat their friends like slaves—and then perished in the revolutions caused by their idiotic methods! How many powerful men have craved to dominate the world—and by overreaching have lost everything they once possessed!
”
”
Xenophon (Cyrus the Great: The Arts of Leadership and War)
“
If everyone were a driven leader, there would be no one left to be led. If everyone were an enthusiastic entertainer, there would be no one to amuse. And if everyone were a detail-oriented perfectionist, there wouldn’t be anything to keep in order.
”
”
Thomas Erikson (Surrounded by Idiots, It's Not Always Depression, How Emotions Are Made The Secret Life Of The Brain)
“
An individual school can handle a resident idiot from time to time, but an entire school system is only as good as its weakest leader.
”
”
Tucker Elliot (The Rainy Season)
“
The world tried to crush you, and you refused to be shattered. You've recovered from every setback a stronger person, rising form the ashes only to astonish everyone around you. And you will continue to surprise and confuse those who underestimate you. It is an inevitability. A forgone conclusion. But you should know now that being a leader is a thankless occupation. Few will ever be grateful for what you do or for the changes you implement. Their memories will be short, convenient. Your every success will be scruntinized. Your accomplishments will be brushed aside, breeding only greater expectations from those around you. Your power will push you further away from your friends. You will be made to feel lonely. Lost. You will long for validation from those you once admired, agonizing between pleasing old friends and doing what is right. But you must never, ever let the idiots into your head. They will only lead you astray.
”
”
Tahereh Mafi (Restore Me (Shatter Me, #4))
“
The paths to power of current world leaders—paths including conspiracy to assault, knee-jerk racism, indeterminate fecundity and cheating at golf—were so askew from the traditional routes that only an idiot would have dared forecast future developments.
”
”
Mick Herron (Slough House (Slough House #7))
“
Alas, one cannot assert authority by accepting one's own fallibility. Simply, people need to be blinded by knowledge-we are made to follow leaders who can gather people together because the advantages of being in groups trump the disadvantages of being alone. It has been more profitable for us to bind together in the wrong direction than to be alone in the right one. Those who have followed the assertive idiot rather than the introspective wise person have passed us some of their genes. This is apparent from a social pathology: psychopaths rally followers.
”
”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable)
“
As undercover investigators we would never have challenged Ken, who was—I can’t stress this enough—a total idiot. We stroked his ego, made him feel like a great leader. He would never be suspicious of someone who thought he was doing a great job.
”
”
Ron Stallworth (Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime)
“
You big ugly. You too empty. You desert with your nothing nothing nothing. You scorched suntanned. Old too quickly. Acres of suburbs watching the telly. You bore me. Freckle silly children. You nothing much. With your big sea. Beach beach beach. I’ve seen enough already. You dumb dirty city with bar stools. You’re ugly. You silly shopping town. You copy. You too far everywhere. You laugh at me. When I came this woman gave me a box of biscuits. You try to be friendly but you’re not very friendly. You never ask me to your house. You insult me. You don’t know how to be with me. Road road tree tree. I came from crowded and many. I came from rich. You have nothing to offer. You’re poor and spread thin. You big. So what. I’m small. It’s what’s in. You silent on Sunday. Nobody on your streets. You dead at night. You go to sleep too early. You don’t excite me. You scare me with your hopeless. Asleep when you walk. Too hot to think. You big awful. You don’t match me. You burnt out. You too big sky. You make me a dot in the nowhere. You laugh with your big healthy. You want everyone to be the same. You’re dumb. You do like anybody else. You engaged Doreen. You big cow. You average average. Cold day at school playing around at lunchtime. Running around for nothing. You never accept me. For your own. You always ask me where I’m from. You always ask me. You tell me I look strange. Different. You don’t adopt me. You laugh at the way I speak. You think you’re better than me. You don’t like me. You don’t have any interest in another country. Idiot centre of your own self. You think the rest of the world walks around without shoes or electric light. You don’t go anywhere. You stay at home. You like one another. You go crazy on Saturday night. You get drunk. You don’t like me and you don’t like women. You put your arm around men in bars. You’re rough. I can’t speak to you. You burly burly. You’re just silly to me. You big man. Poor with all your money. You ugly furniture. You ugly house. You relaxed in your summer stupor. All year. Never fully awake. Dull at school. Wait for other people to tell you what to do. Follow the leader. Can’t imagine. Workhorse. Thick legs. You go to work in the morning. You shiver on a tram.
”
”
Ania Walwicz
“
The Idiot. I have read it once, and find that I don't remember the events of the book very well--or even all the principal characters. But mostly the 'portrait of a truly beautiful person' that dostoevsky supposedly set out to write in that book. And I remember how Myshkin seemed so simple when I began the book, but by the end, I realized how I didn't understand him at all. the things he did. Maybe when I read it again it will be different. But the plot of these dostoevsky books can hold such twists and turns for the first-time reader-- I guess that's b/c he was writing most of these books as serials that had to have cliffhangers and such.
But I make marks in my books, mostly at parts where I see the author's philosophical points standing in the most stark relief. My copy of Moby Dick is positively full of these marks. The Idiot, I find has a few...
Part 3, Section 5. The sickly Ippolit is reading from his 'Explanation' or whatever its called. He says his convictions are not tied to him being condemned to death. It's important for him to describe, of happiness: "you may be sure that Columbus was happy not when he had discovered America, but when he was discovering it." That it's the process of life--not the end or accomplished goals in it--that matter. Well. Easier said than lived!
Part 3, Section 6. more of Ippolit talking--about a christian mindset. He references Jesus's parable of The Word as seeds that grow in men, couched in a description of how people are interrelated over time; its a picture of a multiplicity.
Later in this section, he relates looking at a painting of Christ being taken down from the cross, at Rogozhin's house. The painting produced in him an intricate metaphor of despair over death "in the form of a huge machine of the most modern construction which, dull and insensible, has aimlessly clutched, crushed, and swallowed up a great priceless Being, a Being worth all nature and its laws, worth the whole earth, which was created perhaps solely for the sake of the advent of this Being." The way Ippolit's ideas are configured, here, reminds me of the writings of Gilles Deleuze. And the phrasing just sort of remidns me of the way everyone feels--many people feel crushed by the incomprehensible machine, in life. Many people feel martyred in their very minor ways. And it makes me think of the concept that a narrative religion like Christianity uniquely allows for a kind of socialized or externalized, shared experience of subjectivity. Like, we all know the story of this man--and it feels like our own stories at the same time.
Part 4, Section 7. Myshkin's excitement (leading to a seizure) among the Epanchin's dignitary guests when he talks about what the nobility needs to become ("servants in order to be leaders"). I'm drawn to things like this because it's affirming, I guess, for me: "it really is true that we're absurd, that we're shallow, have bad habits, that we're bored, that we don't know how to look at things, that we can't understand; we're all like that." And of course he finds a way to make that into a good thing. which, it's pointed out by scholars, is very important to Dostoevsky philosophy--don't deny the earthly passions and problems in yourself, but accept them and incorporate them into your whole person. Me, I'm still working on that one.
”
”
Fyodor Dostoevsky
“
Legends are born in solitude. Idiots are born in packs.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar
“
It was easier to be a leader when you weren’t surrounded by total idiots.
”
”
Robert J. Crane (Broken (The Girl in the Box, #6))
“
I was surrounded by idiots… and I was their leader.
”
”
Sedona Ashe (Klutz: Phoenix Secrets (But Did You Die?, #3))
“
We got lots of secrets, Will. You Apollo guys can't have all the fun. Our campers have been excavating the tunnel system under Cabin Nine for almost a century. We still haven't found the end. Anyway, Leo, if you don't mind sleeping in a dead man's bed, it's yours-Jake
Suddenly Leo didn't feel like kicking back. He sat up, careful not to touch any of the buttons. The counselor who died-this was his bed-Leo
Yeah. Charles Beckendorf-Jake
Leo imagined saw blades coming through the mattress, or maybe a grenade sewn inside the pillows. He didn't, like, die IN this bed, did he-Leo
No. In the Titan War, last summer-Jake
The Titan War, which has NOTHING to do with this very fine bed-Leo
"The Titans," Will said, like Leo was an idiot. The big powerful guys that ruled the world before the gods. They tried to make a comeback last summer. Their leader, Kronos, built a new palace on top of Mount Tam in California. Their armies came to New York and almost destoyed Mount Olympus. A lot of demigods died trying to stop them-Will
I'm guessing this wasn't on the news-Leo
It seemed like a fair question, but Will shook his head in disbelief. You didn't hear about Mount St. Helens erupting, or the freak storms across the country, or that building collapsing in St Louis-Will
Leo shrugged. Last summer, he'd been on the run from another foster home. Then a truancy officer caught him in New Mexico, and the court sentenced him to the nearest correction facility-the Wilderness School. Guess I was busy-Leo
Doesn't matter. You were lucky to miss it. The thing is, Beckendorf was one of the first casualties, and ever since then-Jake
Your cabin's been cursed-Leo
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, #1))
“
That morning I sat in the front row with my head in my hands, totally stressed, praying, God, please don’t let my sermon be bad. I’m sure people thought I was in deep prayer for people in the room to have a fresh encounter with Jesus, but unfortunately I was only praying for myself. I desperately didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of the guest speaker who had been so amazing the night before. Then the Lord spoke to my heart: Banning, you have a choice. You can either be a preacher or you can be a son. If you decide to be a preacher, you’ll be good sometimes and at other times you won’t be that good. But if you decide to be a son, you’ll be great all the time, because you are a fantastic son. Everything changed for me in that moment. I said, God, I want to be a son. I don’t want to be anything else. I don’t want to be a preacher. I want to be a son. From that point on, something shifted for me. I was motivated by something different. Now, of course, I do want to be a good pastor, a good preacher, and a good leader. But none of that stuff is what drives me, because when I step off a stage and get alone with Jesus, I don’t want to hear Him say, Banning, you’re a great preacher. I want Him to say, Banning, you’re a great son.
”
”
Banning Liebscher (Rooted: The Hidden Places Where God Develops You)
“
been overthrown by their own protégés! Remember how often leaders have chosen to treat their friends like slaves—and then perished in the revolutions caused by their idiotic methods! How many powerful men have craved to dominate the world—and by overreaching have lost everything they once possessed!
”
”
Xenophon (Cyrus the Great: The Arts of Leadership and War)
“
Kenji goes suddenly still.
At the creak of the door Kenji’s eyebrows shoot up; a soft click and his eyes widen; a muted rustle of movement and suddenly the barrel of a gun is pressed against the back of his head. Kenji stares at me, his lips making no sound as he mouths the word psychopath over and over again.
The psychopath in question winks at me from where he’s standing, smiling like he couldn’t possibly be holding a gun to the head of our mutual friend. I manage to suppress a laugh.
“Go on,” Warner says, still smiling. “Please tell me exactly how she’s failed you as a leader.”
“Hey—“ Kenji’s arms fly up in mock surrender. “I never said she failed at anything, okay? And you are clearly over-react—“
Warner knocks Kenji on the side of the head with the weapon. “Idiot.”
Kenji spins around. Yanks the gun out of Warner’s hand. “What the hell is wrong with you, man? I thought we were cool.”
“We were,” Warner says icily. “Until you touched my hair.”
“You asked me to give you a haircut—“
“I said nothing of the sort! I asked you to trim the edges!”
“And that’s what I did.”
“This,” Warner says, spinning around so I might inspect the damage, “is not trimming the edges, you incompetent moron—“
I gasp. The back of Warner’s head is a jagged mess of uneven hair; entire chunks have been buzzed off.
Kenji cringes as he looks over his handiwork. Clears his throat. “Well,” he says, shoving his hand in his pockets. “I mean—whatever, man, beauty is subjective—“
Warner aims another gun at him.
“Hey!” Kenji shouts. “I am not here for this abusive relationship, okay?” He points to Warner. “I did not sign up for this shit!”
Warner glares at him and Kenji retreats, backing out of the room before Warner has another chance to react; and then, just as I let out a sign of relief, Kenji pops his head back into the doorway and says
“I think the cut looks cute, actually”
and Warner slams the door in his face.
”
”
Tahereh Mafi (Restore Me (Shatter Me, #4))
“
I am not a hero, and definitely not a messiah or a political leader and no, I am not a prophet - you know what I am - I am an idiot who thinks that all humans should think of themselves as humans above their tribal labels - I am just a fool, passing through time and space, being an embodiment of help, harmony and humanity.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Fabric of Humanity)
“
Useful Idiot: In political jargon, a useful idiot is a derogatory term for a person perceived as propagandizing for a cause without fully comprehending the cause's goals, and who is cynically used by the cause's leaders. The term was originally used during the Cold War to describe non-communists regarded as susceptible to communist propaganda and manipulation.
”
”
Wikipedia
“
we are made to follow leaders who can gather people together because the advantages of being in groups trump the disadvantages of being alone. It has been more profitable for us to bind together in the wrong direction than to be alone in the right one. Those who have followed the assertive idiot rather than the introspective wise person have passed us some of their genes. This is apparent from a social pathology: psychopaths rally followers. Once
”
”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable)
“
We got lots of secrets, Will. You Apollo guys can't have all the fun. Our campers have been excavating the tunnel system under Cabin Nine for almost a century. We still haven't found the end. Anyway, Leo, if you don't mind sleeping in a dead man's bed, it's yours-Jake
Suddenly Leo didn't feel like kicking back. He sat u, careful not to touch any of the buttons. The counselor who died-this was his bed-Leo
Yeah. Charles Beckendorf-Jake
Leo imagined saw blades coming through the mattress, or maybe a grenade sewn inside the pillows. He didn't, like, die IN this bed, did he-Leo
No. In the Titan War, last summer-Jake
The Titan War, which has NOTHING to do with this very fine bed-Leo
"The Titans," Will said, like Leo was an idiot. The big powerful guys that ruled the world before the gods. They tried to make a comeback last summer. Their leader, Kronos, built a new palace on top of Mount Tam in California. Their armies came to New York and almost destoyed Mount Olympus. A lot of demigods died trying to stop them-Will
I'm guessing this wasn't on the news-Leo
It seemed like a fair question, but Will shook his head in disbelief. You didn't hear about Mount St. Helens erupting, or the freak storms across the country, or that building collapsing in St Louis-Will
Leo shrugged. Last summer, he'd been on the run from another foster home. Then a truancy officer caught him in New Mexico, and the court sentenced him to the nearest correction facility-the Wilderness School. Guess I was busy-Leo
Doesn't matter. You were lucky to miss it. The thing is, Beckendorf was one of the first casualties, and ever since then-Jake
Your cabin's been cursed-Leo
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, #1))
“
And suddenly he became almost lyric. "For three thousand years the Common Man has been fended off from the full and glorious life he might have had, by Make Believe. For three thousand years in one form or another he has been asking for an unrestricted share in the universal welfare. He has been asking for a fair dividend from civilisation. For all that time, and still it goes on, the advantaged people, the satisfied people, the kings and priests, the owners and traders, the gentlefolk and the leaders he trusted, have been cheating him tacitly or deliberately, out of his proper share and contribution in the common life. Sometimes almost consciously, sometimes subconsciously, cheating themselves about it as well. When he called upon God, they said 'We'll take care of your God for you', and they gave him organised religion. When he calls for Justice, they say 'Everything decently and in order', and give him a nice expensive Law Court beyond his means. When he calls for order and safety too loudly they hit him on the head with a policeman's truncheon. When he sought knowledge, they told him what was good for him. And to protect him from the foreigner, so they said, they got him bombed to hell, trained him to disembowel his fellow common men with bayonets and learn what love of King and Country really means.
"All with the best intentions in the world, mind you.
"Most of these people, I tell you, have acted in perfect good faith. They manage to believe that in sustaining this idiot's muddle they are doing
tremendous things -- stupendous things -- for the Common Man. They can live lives of quiet pride and die quite edifyingly in an undernourished, sweated, driven and frustrated world. Useful public servants! Righteous self-applause! Read their bloody biographies!
”
”
H.G. Wells (The Holy Terror)
“
You have something to say to me, Cassidy, say it. Or shut the fuck up.”
“All right,” Jules said. “I will.” He took a deep breath. Exhaled. “Okay, see, I, well, I love you. Very, very much, and . . .” Where to go from here . . .?
Except, his plain-spoken words earned him not just a glance but Max’s sudden full and complete attention. Which was a little alarming.
But it was the genuine concern in Max’s eyes that truly caught Jules off-guard.
Max actually thought . . . Jules laughed his surprise. “Oh! No, not like that. I meant it, you know, in a totally platonic, non-gay way.”
Jules saw comprehension and relief on Max’s face. The man was tired if he was letting such basic emotions show.
“Sorry.” Max even smiled. “I just . . .” He let out a burst of air. “I mean, talk about making things even more complicated . . .”
It was amazing. Max hadn’t recoiled in horror at the idea. His concern had been for Jules, about potentially hurting his tender feelings. And even now, he wasn’t trying to turn it all into a bad joke.
And he claimed they weren’t friends.
Jules felt his throat tighten. “You can’t know,” he told his friend quietly, “how much I appreciate your acceptance and respect.”
“My father was born in India,” Max told him, “in 1930. His mother was white—American. His father was not just Indian, but lower caste. The intolerance he experienced both there and later, even in America, made him a . . . very bitter, very hard, very, very unhappy man.” He glanced at Jules again. “I know personality plays into it, and maybe you’re just stronger than he was, but . . . People get knocked down all the time. They can either stay there, wallow in it, or . . . Do what you’ve done—what you do. So yeah. I respect you more than you know.”
Holy shit.
Weeping was probably a bad idea, so Jules grabbed onto the alternative. He made a joke. “I wasn’t aware that you even had a father. I mean, rumors going around the office have you arriving via flying saucer—”
“I would prefer not to listen to aimless chatter all night long,” Max interrupted him. “So if you’ve made your point . . .?”
Ouch.
“Okay,” Jules said. “I’m so not going to wallow in that. Because I do have a point. See, I said what I said because I thought I’d take the talk-to-an-eight-year-old approach with you. You know, tell you how much I love you and how great you are in part one of the speech—”
“Speech.” Max echoed.
“Because part two is heavily loaded with the silent-but-implied ‘you are such a freaking idiot.’”
“Ah, Christ,” Max muttered.
“So, I love you,” Jules said again, “in a totally buddy-movie way, and I just want to say that I also really love working for you, and I hope to God you’ll come back so I can work for you again. See, I love the fact that you’re my leader not because you were appointed by some suit, but because you earned very square inch of that gorgeous corner office. I love you because you’re not just smart, you’re open-minded—you’re willing to talk to people who have a different point of view, and when they speak, you’re willing to listen. Like right now, for instance. You’re listening, right?”
“No.”
“Liar.” Jules kept going. “You know, the fact that so many people would sell their grandmother to become a part of your team is not an accident. Sir, you’re beyond special—and your little speech to me before just clinched it. You scare us to death because we’re afraid we won’t be able to live up to your high standards. But your back is strong, you always somehow manage to carry us with you even when we falter.
“Some people don’t see that; they don’t really get you—all they know is they would charge into hell without hesitation if you gave the order to go. But see, what I know is that you’d be right there, out in front—they’d have to run to keep up with you. You never flinch. You never hesitate. You never rest.
”
”
Suzanne Brockmann (Breaking Point (Troubleshooters, #9))
“
I landed on my side, my hip taking the brunt of the fall. It burned and stung from the hit, but I ignored it and struggled to sit up quickly. There really was no point in hurrying so no one would see.
Everyone already saw
A pair of jean-clad legs appeared before me, and my suitcase and all my other stuff was dropped nearby.
"Whatcha doing down there?" Romeo drawled, his hands on his hips as he stared down at me with dancing blue eyes.
"Making a snow angel," I quipped. I glanced down at my hands, which were covered with wet snow and bits of salt (to keep the pavement from getting icy).
Clearly, ice wasn't required for me to fall.
A small group of girls just "happened by", and by that I mean they'd been staring at Romeo with puppy dog eyes and giving me the stink eye. When I fell, they took it as an opportunity to descend like buzzards stalking the dead. Their leader was the girl who approached me the very first day I'd worn Romeo's hoodie around campus and told me he'd get bored. As they stalked closer, looking like clones from the movie Mean Girls, I caught the calculating look in her eyes. This wasn't going to be good.
I pushed up off the ground so I wouldn't feel so vulnerable, but the new snow was slick and my hand slid right out from under me and I fell back again. Romeo was there immediately, the teasing light in his eyes gone as he slid his hand around my back and started to pull me up. "Careful, babe." he said gently.
The girls were behind him so I knew he hadn't seen them approach. They stopped as one unit, and I braced myself for whatever their leader was about to say.
She was wearing painted-on skinny jeans (I mean, really, how did she sit down and still breathe?) and some designer coat with a monogrammed scarf draped fashionably around her neck. Her boots were high-heeled, made of suede and laced up the back with contrasting ribbon.
"Wow," she said, opening her perfectly painted pink lips. "I saw that from way over there. That sure looked like it hurt." She said it fairly amicably, but anyone who could see the twist to her mouth as she said it would know better.
Romeo paused in lifting me to my feet. I felt his eyes on me. Then his lips thinned as he turned and looked over his shoulder.
"Ladies," he said like he was greeting a group of welcomed friends. Annoyance prickled my stomach like tiny needles stabbing me. It's not that I wanted him to be rude, but did he have to sound so welcoming?
"Romeo," Cruella DeBarbie (I don't know her real name, but this one fit) purred. "Haven't you grown bored of this clumsy mule yet?"
Unable to stop myself, I gasped and jumped up to my feet. If she wanted to call me a mule, I'd show her just how much of an ass I could be.
Romeo brought his arm out and stopped me from marching past. I collided into him, and if his fingers hadn't knowingly grabbed hold to steady me, I'd have fallen again.
"Actually," Romeo said, his voice calm, "I am pretty bored."
Three smirks were sent my way. What a bunch of idiots.
"The view from where I'm standing sure leaves a lot to be desired."
One by one, their eyes rounded when they realized the view he referenced was them.
Without another word, he pivoted around and looked down at me, his gaze going soft. "No need to make snow angels, baby," he said loud enough for the slack-jawed buzzards to hear. "You already look like one standing here with all that snow in your hair."
Before I could say a word, he picked me up and fastened his mouth to mine. My legs wound around his waist without thought, and I kissed him back as gentle snow fell against our faces.
”
”
Cambria Hebert (#Hater (Hashtag, #2))
“
I started to sing.
Yes, sing.
"I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy. Yankee Doodle Do or die."
I let go of Henry and Caroline and started marching, like I was the leader of a parade.
"An old old something something la la la, born on the Fourth of July." So maybe I didn't know the words, exactly.
Alex joined in. Astrid, too. All three of us marching like idiots.
"You're my Yankee Doodle sweetheart, Yankee Doodle do or die."
I led the three of us, making up the words somewhat and we walked in front of the gate, getting between the eyes of the little kids and the plywood, just trying to break the terror spell of the monster outside.
Who now stared to yell, "YOU SINKING 'YANKEE DOODLE'? 'YANKEE DOODLE DANDY'? I'LL F--- KILL YOU!"
Niko joined in and that guy, I am here to tell you, is entirely tone deaf.
But the little kids kind of snapped to. We caught their attention.
"Yankee Doodle went to town a riding on a pony. I am a Yankee Doodle guy."
And the kids started marching and I led the parade, the saddest parade in the history of the world, away from the front of the store, away from the monster outside, and right to the stupid cookie and cracker aisle. We ate fudge-covered graham crackers for a good long while.
”
”
Emmy Laybourne (Monument 14 (Monument 14, #1))
“
It’s worse than you can imagine. An idiot surrounded by clowns. Trump won’t read anything—not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored. And his staff is no better. Kushner is an entitled baby who knows nothing. Bannon is an arrogant prick who thinks he’s smarter than he is. Trump is less a person than a collection of terrible traits. No one will survive the first year but his family.
”
”
Michael Wolff (Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House)
“
But this sense of duty and virtue involved a complicated calculation about your positive effect on the White House versus its negative effect on you. In April, an email originally copied to more than a dozen people went into far wider circulation when it was forwarded and reforwarded. Purporting to represent the views of Gary Cohn and quite succinctly summarizing the appalled sense in much of the White House, the email read: It’s worse than you can imagine. An idiot surrounded by clowns. Trump won’t read anything—not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored. And his staff is no better. Kushner is an entitled baby who knows nothing. Bannon is an arrogant prick who thinks he’s smarter than he is. Trump is less a person than a collection of terrible traits. No one will survive the first year but his family. I hate the work, but feel I need to stay because I’m the only person there with a clue what he’s doing. The reason so few jobs have been filled is that they only accept people who pass ridiculous purity tests, even for midlevel policy-making jobs where the people will never see the light of day. I am in a constant state of shock and horror.
”
”
Michael Wolff (Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House)
“
What are the attributes of a leader?
When the nation understands and realises that, it blocks the route for the leadership, with the foresight, upon dishonest, rude and immoral ones. Otherwise, the rope of idiocy remains in the hands of idiots.
”
”
Ehsan Sehgal
“
The foraging technique of these caterpillars is remarkably simple, even idiotic, but it works. The fail-safe, Despland explained, is that hunger induces restlessness, which eventually compels them to abandon the well-worn trails and go looking for something else. “The leaders tend to be the hungry ones,” she explained. “Because they’re the ones who are willing to pay the cost.
”
”
Robert Moor (On Trails: An Exploration)
“
Intellectual Fascism – 2/3
Take, by way of illustration, two well-educated, presumably liberal, intelligent people in our culture who are arguing with each other about some point. What, out of irritation and disgust, is one likely to call the other? A "filthy black," a "dirty Jew bastard," or a "black-eyed runt"? Heavens, no. But a "stupid idiot," a "nincompoop," a "misinformed numbskull"? By all means, yes. And will the note of venom, of utter despisement that is in the detractor's voice, be any different from that in the voice of the out-and-out fascist with his racial, religious, and political epithets? Honestly, now: will it?
Suppose the individual against whom a well-educated, presumably liberal, intelligent person aims scorn actually is stupid, or misinformed. Is this a crime? Should he, perforce, curl up and die because he is so afflicted? Is she an utterly worthless, valueless blackguard for not possessing the degree of intelligence and knowledge that her detractor thinks she should possess? And yet - let us be ruthlessly honest with ourselves, now! - isn't this exactly what the presumably liberal person is saying and implying - that the individual whose traits she dislikes doesn't deserve to live? Isn't this what we (for it is not hard to recognize our own image here, is it?) frequently are alleging when we argue with, criticize, and judge others in our everyday living?
The facts, in regard to higher-order fascism, are just as clear as those in regard to lower-order prejudice. For just as everyone in our society cannot be, except through the process of arbitrary genocide or "eugenic" elimination, Aryan, or tall, or white, so cannot everyone be bright, or artistically talented, or successful in some profession. In fact, even if we deliberately bred only higher intelligent and artistically endowed individuals to each other, and forced the rest of the human race to die off, we still would be far from obtaining a race of universal achievers: since, by definition, topflight achievement can only be attained by a relatively few leaders in most fields of endeavour, and is a "relative" rather than an "absolute" possibility.
The implicit goals of intellectual fascism, then, are, at least in today's world, impractical and utopian. Everyone cannot be endowed with artistic or intellectual genius; only a small minority can be. And if we demand that all be in that minority, to what are we automatically condemning those who clearly cannot be? Obviously: to being blamed and despised for their "deficiencies"; to being lower-class citizens; to having self-hatred and minimal self-acceptance.
Even this, however, hardly plumbs the inherent viciousness of intellectual fascism. For whereas lower-order or politico-economic fascism at least serves as a form of neurotic defensiveness for those who uphold its tenets, higher-order fascism fails to provide such defences and actually destroys them. Thus, politico-social fascists believe that others are to be despised for not having certain "desirable" traits - but that they are not to be applauded for having them. From a psychological standpoint, they compensate for their own underlying feelings of inadequacy by insisting that they are super-adequate and those who are not like them are subhumans.
Intellectual Fascists start out with a similar assumption but more often than not get blown to bits by their own homemade explosives. For although they can at first assume that they are bright, talented, and potentially achieving, they must eventually prove that they are. Because, in the last analysis, they tend to define talent and intelligence in terms of concrete achievement, and because outstanding achievement in our society is mathematically restricted to a few, they rarely can have real confidence in their own possession of the values they have "arbitrarily deified".
”
”
Albert Ellis
“
The peer pressure works because we believe that majority or the experts might know more than we do. Peer pressure works not because the majority or experts are always right but because we fear that we are maybe wrong. ...
Have you ever had a sales wrap by selling you an office solution, by telling you that 70% of your competitors are using the service so why aren't you?"
-"But what if 70% of your competitors are idiots?
”
”
Simon Sinek (Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action)
“
It's worse than you can imagine. An idiot (Trump) surrounded by clowns. Trump won't read anything - not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored.
”
”
Michael Wolff (Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House)
“
It’s worse than you can imagine. An idiot surrounded by clowns. Trump won’t read anything—not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored. And his staff is no better. Kushner is an entitled baby who knows nothing. Bannon is an arrogant prick who thinks he’s smarter than he is. Trump is less a person than a collection of terrible traits.
”
”
Michael Wolff (Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House)
“
It’s worse than you can imagine. An idiot surrounded by clowns. Trump won’t read anything—not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored. And his staff is no better. Kushner is an entitled baby who knows nothing. Bannon is an arrogant prick who thinks he’s smarter than he is. Trump is less a person than a collection of terrible traits. No one will survive the first year but his family. I hate the work, but feel I need to stay because I’m the only person there with a clue what he’s doing. The reason so few jobs have been filled is that they only accept people who pass ridiculous purity tests, even for midlevel policy-making jobs where the people will never see the light of day. I am in a constant state of shock and horror.
”
”
Michael Wolff (Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House)
“
In a world devoid of towering political leaders, we seem to have become experts at growing idiots & elevating them to important positions.
”
”
Mamur Mustapha
“
See, I was hangin with the big boys. They were actin based on my very input. I was becoming a leader, botha learnin and a teachin. I was spending all my time working to get some new gigs going. Biz as you should know, can take years and lots of money. I was such an idiot for allowing it to happen. I believed in you, all the way.
I don't seek women out for hookups. Never did. My mind doesn't work that way. It doesn't feel right. Probably cause I was the only one to protect my sister.
Think I care about a body. I find most people who are healthy to be attractive. Don't even know anyway.
I know you'll never speak with me, too wrapped up in your own tech world, therefore, by your own way, to be is out of the question. As a cat's toy, I simply don't matter. It may take years for me just to be able to speak to people again. By then, what's left of my youth will be gone.
Think I wanted a momma or a caretaka. Nah. I just needed to heal.
”
”
Anonymous
“
It is better to have a knowledgeable and educated leader for a short time, than an idiot for a long period.
”
”
Lucas D. Shallua
“
Half of a leader’s job was to not be an idiot. The other half was to not act like an ignorant peasant.
”
”
Wesley Chu (The Art of Prophecy (War Arts #1))
“
The numbers don’t lie: if your leader thinks stress is a sign of hard work, you’re following an idiot, not a visionary.
”
”
Abhysheq Shukla
“
Good bosses also know the wrong times to fight. Tearing apart a newborn idea can kill it before it develops enough to be judged. That is why skilled group brainstorming leaders forbid premature criticism. Argument and criticism are equally destructive once a team has decided which ideas to discard and which to keep and use. After a decision is made, whining on and on that your brilliant idea was superior to the idiotic final choice is risky because it saps everyone’s energy for developing and implementing the winning ideas.
”
”
Robert I. Sutton (Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best... and Learn from the Worst)
“
An integral part of a public offering is a “road show,” during which company leaders pitch their prospects to bankers and investment gurus. Brin and Page refused to see themselves as supplicants. According to Lise Buyer, the founders routinely spurned any advice from the experienced financial team they’d hired to guide them through the process. “If you told them you couldn’t do something a certain way, they would think you were an idiot,” she says. The tone of the road-show presentations was set early, as Brin and Page introduced themselves by first names, an opening more appropriate for bistro waiters than potential captains of industry. And of course they weren’t attired like executives—the day of their presentation of Google’s case to investors was one more in a lifetime of casual dress days for them. Google had prepared a video to promote the company, but viewers considered it amateurish. It was poorly lit and wasn’t even enlivened by the customary upbeat musical sound track. Though anyone who read the prospectus should have been prepared for that, some investors had difficulty with the heresy that Google was willing to forgo some profits for its founders’ idealistic views of what made the world a better place. On the video Brin cautioned that Google might apply its resources “to ameliorate a number of the world’s problems.” Probably the low point of the road show was a massive session involving 1,500 potential investors at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York. Brin and Page caused a firestorm by refusing to answer many questions, cracking jokes instead. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Some investors sitting in the ballroom began speculating with each other whether the executives had spent any time practicing the presentation, or if they were winging it.” The latter was in fact the case—despite the desperate urging of Google’s IPO team, Page and Brin had refused to perform even a cursory run-through.
”
”
Steven Levy (In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives)
“
A throat cleared. “Earth to Arik. Come in, boss.”
With brows drawn, Arik glared at his beta. “What?”
“I was asking what had your boxers in a knot.”
“You know I go commando.”
“Usually, but something obviously has your panties in a twist. Spill.”
Oh, he spilled all right. Arik yanked off the hat and flung it against the wall and then swiveled his chair to get it over with.
Indrawn breath. A snicker. A full-on guffaw.
Arik swirled again and tossed deadly visual daggers at his second. “I fail to see the humor in my butchered mane.”
“Dude. Have you seen it? It is bad. What did you do to piss Dominic off? Seduce one of his daughters?”
“Actually one of his granddaughters did this to me!”
He couldn’t help the incredulous note. The effrontery of the act still got to him.
A thump and a shake of the wall as Hayder hit it, his shoulders shaking with laughter. “A girl did that to you?” His beta convulsed with mirth, not at all daunted by Arik’s glower and tapping fingers.
“This is not amusing.”
“Oh, come on, dude. Of all the people to have a hair mishap, you are the worst.”
“I look like an idiot.”
“Only because you didn’t let her finish hacking the rest off.”
His fingers froze as he took his gaze off the screen for a moment to address the travesty. “Cut off my mane?” Was his beta delusional?
“Well, yeah. You know, to even it out so it doesn’t show.”
A growl rumbled forth, more beast than man, his lion not at all on board with any more trimming.
“Okay, if you’re not keen on that, then what about a hair weave? Maybe we could get you a platinum one, or pink for contrast since you’re being such a prissy princess about it.”
That did it.
A lion could take only so much.
Arik dove over his desk and tackled his beta. Over they went with a thump and a tangle of limbs.
As he was slamming Hayder’s head off the floor, snarling, “Take it back!” to his beta’s chortled, “We’ll get your nails done while they’re weaving,” Leo strode in.
A giant of a man, he didn’t even have to strain as he grabbed them each by a shoulder and yanked them apart.
But he didn’t stop there.
He slammed their heads together before shoving them down.
Arik and Hayder sat on the carpeted floor, nursing robin’s eggs, united in their glare for the pride’s omega, also known as the peacemaker.
Of course, Leo’s version of peace wasn’t always gentle, which was why he was perfect for the pride.
The behemoth with the mellow outlook on life took a seat in a chair, which groaned ominously.
“You do know that the staff two floors down can hear the pair of you acting like ill-behaved cubs.”
“He started it!” Arik stabbed a finger at his beta.
He had no problem assigning blame. Delegation was something an alpha did well.
Hayder didn’t even deny his guilt. “I did. But can you blame me? He was pissing and moaning about this precious mane. All I did was offer a solution, and he took offense.”
“I assume we’re talking about the missing chunk of hair on our esteemed leader’s head?” Leo shook his neatly trimmed dark crown. “I keep telling you that vanity is your weakness.”
“And chocolate chip ice cream is yours. We all have our vices,” Arik grumbled as he heaved himself off the floor and into his leather-padded seat— with built-in heating pad and massager because a man in his position did enjoy his luxuries.
“My vice is beautiful women,” Hayder announced with a grin, adopting a lounging pose on the floor.
Felines were king when it came to acting as if embarrassing positions weren’t accidental at all.
“Don’t talk to me about women right now. I’m still angry at the one who did this.”
“I think I’m missing a key point,” Leo stated.
It didn’t take long to bring Leo up to speed. To his credit, the pride omega didn’t laugh— long.
”
”
Eve Langlais (When an Alpha Purrs (A Lion's Pride, #1))
“
Only 29 percent of U.S. family businesses have a written succession plan. Only 41 percent have actually identified a successor. But when a successor has been named, nearly 90 percent say that the new leader will be a family member. (Source: Laird Norton Tyee Family Business Survey 2007) The
”
”
Janis Raye (The Complete Idiot's Guide to a Successful Family Business)
“
This is why those with greater social sensitivity have stronger friendships, better marriages, and are happier with their lives in general. At work, leaders do better when they have some sense of whether or not their instructions are being understood. Managers motivate their employees when they have some sense of what their employees want and need. Salesmen close more deals when they have some ability to know what their customers want and can modify their pitch accordingly. Most of us avoid getting into fistfights or looking like complete idiots because we have a reasonable sense of what others think and feel, and thus can manage our relationships reasonably well. Being able to understand others
”
”
Nicholas Epley (Mindwise: Why We Misunderstand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want)
“
Long before Ralph Reed and his ilk came on the scene, Dad got sick of “these idiots,” as he often called people like Dobson in private. They were “plastic,” Dad said, and “power-hungry.” They were “Way too right-wing, really nuts!” and “They’re using our issue to build their empires.” To our lasting discredit, Dad and I didn’t go public with our real opinions of the religious-right leaders we were in bed with. We believed there was too much at stake, both personally, as we caught the power-trip disease, and politically, as we got carried away by the needs of the pro-life movement. And however conflicted Dad and I were, like the other religious-right leaders, we were on an ego-stroking roll. We kept our mouths shut.
”
”
Frank Schaeffer (Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back)
“
Ross Strickland Democracy gives everyone, including the wise and idiots a chance to vote for the leader of their country. The problem is whether the population has a majority of idiots or a majority of wise people. Added to the problem is even some wise people votes with their arses rather than their heads.
”
”
Ross Strickland
“
In the traitor lands, there were sacrifices every new moon, and you were lucky if the lord slit your throat before he gave you to his master. Even in the caves, leaders had cracked. Joan listened to the three girls discuss “character” very seriously and tried not to laugh or roll her eyes. You idiots, she thought. Does it matter where your prince put his hands? There’s no blood on them. Except that they did care because they could. Because they’d never known anyone worse. Tyrants were hazy figures from history. If this was a land, maybe a time, in the summer of its life, these were women in the summer of theirs. Their voices held no desperation, no need to hurry, no real fear. Earnestness, yes, and lots of it, but they gave a damn because they chose to, not because they had to. Even
”
”
Isabel Cooper (No Proper Lady (Englefield, #1))
“
Across the Reich, the Gestapo recorded increased the
activity of anti-state elements. It’s kind of a helpless protest by
those wretches against our celebration of victory. They organize
bomb attacks against representatives of the Reich or against
the civilian German population. We’ve also noticed murder-suicides.
Eighty-seven civilians killed have been reported during
the last week. From the Protectorate of Bohmen und Mahren,
the destruction of Peter Brezovsky’s long-sought military cell
was announced. From Ostmark…”
“Enough,” Beck interrupted him, “I’m interested only in
Brezovsky.”
That name caused him discomfort. In his mind, he returned
to the Bohemian Forest in 1996. It was in a different dimension,
before he had used time travel. At the time, Peter Brezovsky
was the only man who had passed through the Time Gate. He’d
offered him a position by his side during the building of the
Great German Reich. He’d refused. Too bad, he could have used
a man like him. These dummies weren’t eager enough to fulfill
his instructions. He also remembered Werner Dietrich, who had
died in the slaughter during an inspection in the Protectorate.
“… in the sector 144-5. It was a temporary base of the group.
There were apparently targeted explosions of the surrounding
buildings,” the man continued.
“This area interests me. I want to know everything that’s
happening there. Go on,” he ordered the man.
He was flattered at the leader’s sudden interest. Raising his
head proudly, he stretched his neck even more and continued,
“For your entertainment, Herr Führer, our two settlers, living
in this area from 1960, on June the twenty first, met two suspect
men dressed in leather like savages. The event, of course,
was reported to the local department of the Gestapo. It’s funny
because during the questioning of one of Brezovsky’s men we
learnt an interesting story related to these men.”
He relaxed a little. The atmosphere in the room was less
strained, too. He smiled slightly, feeling self-importance.
“In 1942, a certain woman from the Bohemian Forest made
a whacky prophecy. Wait a minute.” He reached into the jacket
and pulled out a little notebook. “I wrote it down, it’ll certainly
amuse you. Those Slavic dogs don’t know what to do, and so
they take refuge in similar nonsense.” He opened the notebook
and began to read, “Government of darkness will come. After
half a century of the Devil’s reign, on midsummer’s day, on the
spot where he came from, two men will appear in flashes. These
two warriors will end the dominance of the despot and will
return natural order to the world.”
During the reading, men began to smile and now some of
them were even laughing aloud.
“Stop it, idiots!” screamed Beck furiously. In anger, he sprang
from behind his desk and severely hit the closest man’s laughing
face.
A deathly hush filled the room. Nobody understood what
had happened. What could make the Führer so angry? This was
the first time he had hit somebody in public.
Beck wasn’t as angry as it might look. He was scared to death.
This he had been afraid of since he had passed through the Time
Gate. Since that moment, he knew this time would come one
day. That someone would use the Time Gate and destroy everything
he’d built. That couldn’t happen! Never!
“Do you have these men?” he asked threateningly.
Reich Gestapo Commander regretted he’d spoken about it.
He wished he’d bitten his tongue. This innocent episode had
caused the Führer’s unexpected reaction. His mouth went dry.
Beck looked terrifying.
“Herr Führer,” he spoke quietly, “unfortunately…”
“Aloud!” yelled Beck.
“Unfortunately we don’t, Herr Führer. But they probably
died during the action of the Gestapo against Brezovsky. His
body, as well as the newcomers, wasn’t found. The explosion
probably blew them up,” he said quickly.
“The explosion probably blew them up,” Beck parodied him
viciously, “and that was enough for you, right?
”
”
Anton Schulz
“
In a democracy, you cannot blame only a leading leader but also the entire leadership, including the voters’ choice, if the party fails to fulfill its promises.
Prose, whether in the form of a quotation or something else, expresses various colours of character and life in its context and accurately mirrors society; therefore, read not only the content of the writing but also understand and share what you think will enlighten others’ lives.
What are the attributes of a leader?
When the nation understands and realizes that, it blocks the route for the leadership, with the foresight, upon dishonest, rude, and immoral ones. Otherwise, the rope of idiocy remains in the hands of idiots.
The day you vote is an opportunity to vote not for a leader but for a party manifesto and constructive thoughts and plans. Indeed, you will have good fortune, a bright and joyful social status, and prosperity will always be a part of your society and life.
You are the real leader of the universe if you also lead the hearts and not just the minds. The mind keeps the knowledge while the heart showers the fragrance of love towards the soul; it is the base and circle of the knowledge.
A leader doesn’t mean to have governmental power; it means to lead its people on the right, secure, equal, fair, and visionary way of life.
Be a leader, not a lawyer and judge, not an official; express party program(me) honestly for the nation and face all the challenges before accusing, abusing, and blaming others. Indeed, it shows dignity and venerable leadership.
The opposition leaders and those in power can keep reputable the four pillars of democracy in the context of constitutional duties, transparent justice, truth, and honesty; they can also discredit those by their wrong character and fallacious decisions and deeds.
Real and true leader neither has a special status nor contradict others.
If he keeps the distance in any way or shape
If he says things that don’t exist
If he brings you in a destructive direction
If he what promises, but do not keep his words
If he put you naked in the open sky and himself in a comfortable tent
If he gives you false hopes rather than the practical helping
He is just an opportunist, a cheater, and a liar but not a leader.
Promises of the leader before the election build expectations in the minds of voters, and after winning the election, those cause humiliation in the eyes of voters if the leader fails to fulfill them. Therefore, fly not so high that you cannot land easily; be honest with yourself.
Political leadership is a significant spirit and defense of the armed forces of any state, whereas the armed forces are a protective shield for them. Both are compulsory for each other, as the political leadership has one point, and the armed forces have zero points, which becomes ten points. Otherwise, it stays one or zero, establishing nothing.
A selfish and empty of vision and solution leadership prefers its own political and personal benefits and interests instead of its people; indeed, it collapses in the face of ruffians and traitors of the constitution. As a reality, such a state and all institutions face conspiracies in global affairs; consequently, diplomatic isolation and trade failure become destiny; it leads towards destruction with self-adopted strategy and character.
”
”
Ehsan Sehgal
“
It would be unfair to label all Trump’s supporters as morons and complete idiots. After all, we do not judge the people that a hypnotist makes flap their arms thinking there are chickens
”
”
Axel de Landalay (THE SECOND COMING OF “TRUMP THE FIRST” DEAR LEADER OF THE BANANA REPUBLIC OF THE DISUNITED STATES OF AMERICA - Part II: Part II - Paradise Lost Redux)
“
To say that half of Trump’s supporters are complete idiots would not be politically correct, so let me rephrase my statement: half of Trump’s supporters are not complete idiots
”
”
Axel de Landalay (THE SECOND COMING OF “TRUMP THE FIRST” DEAR LEADER OF THE BANANA REPUBLIC OF THE DISUNITED STATES OF AMERICA - Part II: Part II - Paradise Lost Redux)
“
In America, truth has been replaced by feelings; no evidence is necessary. So, if I feel that you are a complete idiot, that must be true.”\
”
”
Axel de Landalay (THE SECOND COMING OF “TRUMP THE FIRST”- PART I: DEAR LEADER OF THE BANANA REPUBLIC OF THE DISUNITED STATES OF AMERICA (THE SECOND COMING OF “TRUMP ... REPUBLIC OF THE DISUNITED STATES OF AMERICA))
“
The brain is a social organism: to call someone an idiot is to point a finger and put a label on them. It demonstrates your own ability to detect this defect, which isn’t always easy to spot at first sight, as we have shown, and which you yourself do not possess. To call someone else stupid is to call attention to your own perceptiveness, which is always flattering to the ego, placing yourself above the designated victim. As a rule, few people will contradict you, which allows you to confirm your ascendance on the lofty ladder occupied by those who share your point of view. They spare themselves mental effort by mirroring you. They will mock the sacrificial victim along with you, laughing heartily. You will be confirmed as the leader of a superior assemblage that knows how to draw a clear line between idiots and everyone else. Your expertise will spread quickly intoother domains. You will be listened to, and your advice will be followed; better still, you will be obeyed! The poor idiots you’ve singled out will have no choice but to flee, or to just stand by and take it. They will be forced to submit, to accept ridicule to fulfill their role as scapegoats. A king who turns megalomaniac will try to hold on to his crown, expand his powers, and reign without giving power to those who placed him on the throne. He exploits them legitimately because they were stupid enough to prop him up. And still—so says Brassens—there’s hardly any chance he’ll be dethroned.
”
”
Jean-François Marmion (The Psychology of Stupidity)
“
What are the attributes of a leader; when the nation understands and realises that, it blocks the route for the leadership, with foresight, upon dishonest, rude, and immoral ones. Otherwise, the rope of idiocy remains in the hands of idiots.
”
”
Ehsan Sehgal
“
You’d be wise to keep the following list of rules in front of you throughout your projects: Gain consensus on project outcomes. Build the best team you can. Develop a plan and keep it up to date. Determine what you really need to get things done. Have a realistic schedule. Don’t try to do too much. Remember that people count. Gain the support of management and stakeholders. Be willing to change. Keep others informed of what you are doing. Be willing to try new things. Become a leader.
”
”
G. Michael Campbell (Idiot's Guides: Project Management)
“
Alas, one cannot assert authority by accepting one’s own fallibility. Simply, people need to be blinded by knowledge—we are made to follow leaders who can gather people together because the advantages of being in groups trump the disadvantages of being alone. It has been more profitable for us to bind together in the wrong direction than to be alone in the right one. Those who have followed the assertive idiot rather than the introspective wise person have passed us some of their genes. This is apparent from a social pathology: psychopaths rally followers.
”
”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable)
“
Vande Vasudhaivam Sonnet 68
Don't be fooled by my attire,
You think of me a fool because
I want you to think of me a fool.
I am a behaviorist, and by behaving idiot
I study who's true, who's a tool.
I don't dress all ancient like a monk,
yet monks come to hear the words I utter.
I don't dress fancy like world leaders,
yet world leaders look to me for answer.
I don't wear the uniform of law,
yet coppers study me to be better cops.
I never got to put on a white coat,
yet white coats study me to be better docs.
I am the person beyond the paradigm,
I am but a reflection of the best of humankind.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo)
“
What one observes is a horde of uneducated and inflammatory dunderheads, eager for power, intolerant of opposition and full of a childish vanity—a mob of holy clerks but little raised, in intelligence and dignity, above the forlorn half-wits whose souls they chronically rack. In the whole United States there is scarcely one among them who stands forth as a man of sense and information. Illiterate in all save the elementals, untouched by the larger currents of thought, drunk with their power over dolts, crazed by their immunity to challenge by their betters, they carry over into the professional class of the country the spirit of the most stupid peasantry, and degrade religion to the estate of an idiotic phobia. There is not a village in America in which some such preposterous jackass is not in eruption. Worse, he is commonly the leader of its opinion—its pattern in reason, morals and good taste. Yet worse, he is ruler as well as pattern. Wrapped in his sacerdotal cloak, he stands above any effective criticism. To question his imbecile ideas is to stand in contumacy of the revelation of God.
”
”
H.L. Mencken (H. L. Mencken Seven Book Collection)
“
The philosopher and ethicist Jonathan Glover reports the story of Odilo Globocnik, the Nazi SS leader in Lublin, Poland, who recalled an incident in which he expressed to another Nazi officer, a Major Hofle, how much it bothered him to think about the Polish children freezing to death while being transported by the Nazis from Lublin to Warsaw. He could not look at these young children without thinking of his own three-year-old niece. Hofle, he recalled, looked at me 'like [I was] an idiot.' Sometime later, Hofle’s own baby twins died of diphtheria and, at the cemetery, he cried out that it was heaven’s punishment for his misdeeds.
”
”
Dennis Prager (The Rational Bible: Exodus)
“
Yes, the Illuminati have always sought a New World Order. Humanity cries out for it. Isn’t it time to abolish the old, failed ways that have enslaved so many billions? The Illuminati have incurred the enmity of all those who prosper from the Old World Order: the rich, privileged elites, the religious leaders who deceive their flocks (of sheep), and the paranoid, ill educated idiots (all the brainwashed anti-New World Order conspiracy theory nuts who don’t see that the New World Order is their only hope of liberation).
”
”
Michael Faust (The Hidden Masters)
“
Useful Idiot: In political jargon, a useful idiot is a derogatory term for a person perceived as propagandizing for a cause without fully comprehending the cause's goals, and who is cynically used by the cause's leaders. The term was originally used during the Cold War to describe non-communists regarded as susceptible to communist propaganda and manipulation.
”
”
communism, politics, marxism
“
Keep an eye on the idiot in your team, if you don't see one, its you.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Goddamn, so this is what it means to have a leader
You despise, the racists said when the president
Was black and I’ll be damned if I ain’t saying it too.
Is this a mandate for whiteness, virility, sovereignty,
Stupidity, an idiot’s threats & gangsta narcissisms threading
Every shabby sentence his trumpet constructs?
”
”
Terrance Hayes (American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin)
“
first published on tumblr 27 Aug 2020
Biden and Harris are AMERICANS for AMERICANS and world peace.
white power slave hole American rot blood lust sadistic arousal yet continues even with the survivor Mr Blake chained to a bed. Police racist garbage please stop getting your sadistic arousal at the expense of humanity your racist sadistic aroused pull to continue salivating over the capture cage slave hole of mr blake is very nauseating. you enjoy humiliating and debasing humanity because you want to control our lives our movement our vote. racist sadistic police forcing us to comply with sadistic misogyny because you cant have us and you do not control us You racist cops want to destroy humanity because mr.jacob blake reveals the emergency door. The emergency that the world is over your stupid racist bitches violence who want to use us for your sadistic fuck and its not wanted by humanity. dont want it. NO THANK YOU. YOU HAVE RACIST IDIOTS DEDICATED TO HUMILIATING AND DEBASING HUMANITY BECAUSE THEY CANT GET A LIFE OR THEY FEEL IT IS THEIR FUCKING DUTY IN LIFE TO PUT HUMANITY IN ITS PLACE WHAT PLACE IS THAT RACIST ZUNT BITCHES?????????? YOU RACIST ZUNTS COULDNT HAVE A FUCKING DAY IF YOU DIDNT FUCK ABOUT HUMANITY IN SOME FUCK. YOU ARE DISGUSTING IN YOUR USE OF HUMANITY FOR YOUR OWN PROFIT. YOU MAKE A NICE PROFIT OF OFF THE ABUSE HUMILIATION DEBASING DEHUMANIZATION YOU INFLICT ON US. STUPID FUCKING RACIST BITCHES FROM GOVERNMENT TO THE POLICE TO ANY FUCKING SOCIAL CONSTRUCT. AND HUMANITY IS OVER YOUR EVIL BITCH. GET A LIFE FIND IT GO SOMEWHERE OR NOT DO WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT WITH YOUR LIFE AND STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM FOLK WHO JUST WANT TO HAVE A DAY.
sadistic murder aroused racists want to keep humanity in the slave hole because racist dont want humanity to advance any exchange out of the slave hole is based on the racists sadistic aroused need its always the stupid fucking racists or racist sadistic cops taking advantage of humanity theres never freedom never any conditions for freedom or power to choose or change. Well this is over. humanity has power stupid fucking sadistic cops and taxpayers are over this evil bitch of yours. GO get some processing racist cops on how you abuse of power with so much of your murder blood lust because you cant handle your own sex and sexuality and feelings you fight because you want humanity who does not want you and NEVER WILL!!!! go get processing racist cops. Find out why you cant handle your own explorations of your own sexuality and how you want to murder hurt humiliate humanity who reject you and your racism. how you are racists murdering cops who exist for those exchanges. Even the set up is a sadistic master turn on the whole fucking thing is nauseating and then the after clean the blood up after the scene routine the put the slave back in the slave hole is beyond silence it makes want to vomit and never stop vomiting. leave humanity alone. fuck off racist cop unions no you dont look powerful or witty or anything smart to the world AMERICA is a mockery to the world because of your stupid bitch moves. Americans are powerful and voting for real leaders that will eradicate this evil racism by finding real cops who just do their work to serve and to protect humanity and thats it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
gwencalvo 8 27 20
”
”
Gwen Calvo
“
first published on tumblr 27 Aug 2020
Biden and Harris are AMERICANS for AMERICANS and world peace.
white power slave hole American rot blood lust sadistic arousal yet continues even with the survivor Mr Blake chained to a bed. Police racist garbage please stop getting your sadistic arousal at the expense of humanity your racist sadistic aroused pull to continue salivating over the capture cage slave hole of mr blake is very nauseating. you enjoy humiliating and debasing humanity because you want to control our lives our movement our vote. racist sadistic police forcing us to comply with sadistic misogyny because you cant have us and you do not control us You racist cops want to destroy humanity because mr.jacob blake reveals the emergency door. The emergency that the world is over your stupid racist bitches violence who want to use us for your sadistic fuck and its not wanted by humanity. dont want it. NO THANK YOU. YOU HAVE RACIST IDIOTS DEDICATED TO HUMILIATING AND DEBASING HUMANITY BECAUSE THEY CANT GET A LIFE OR THEY FEEL IT IS THEIR FUCKING DUTY IN LIFE TO PUT HUMANITY IN ITS PLACE WHAT PLACE IS THAT RACIST ZUNT BITCHES?????????? YOU RACIST ZUNTS COULDNT HAVE A FUCKING DAY IF YOU DIDNT FUCK ABOUT HUMANITY IN SOME FUCK. YOU ARE DISGUSTING IN YOUR USE OF HUMANITY FOR YOUR OWN PROFIT. YOU MAKE A NICE PROFIT OF OFF THE ABUSE HUMILIATION DEBASING DEHUMANIZATION YOU INFLICT ON US. STUPID FUCKING RACIST BITCHES FROM GOVERNMENT TO THE POLICE TO ANY FUCKING SOCIAL CONSTRUCT. AND HUMANITY IS OVER YOUR EVIL BITCH. GET A LIFE FIND IT GO SOMEWHERE OR NOT DO WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT WITH YOUR LIFE AND STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM FOLK WHO JUST WANT TO HAVE A DAY.
sadistic murder aroused racists want to keep humanity in the slave hole because racist dont want humanity to advance any exchange out of the slave hole is based on the racists sadistic aroused need its always the stupid fucking racists or racist sadistic cops taking advantage of humanity theres never freedom never any conditions for freedom or power to choose or change. Well this is over. humanity has power stupid fucking sadistic cops and taxpayers are over this evil bitch of yours. GO get some processing racist cops on how you abuse of power with so much of your murder blood lust because you cant handle your own sex and sexuality and feelings you fight because you want humanity who does not want you and NEVER WILL!!!! go get processing racist cops. Find out why you cant handle your own explorations of your own sexuality and how you want to murder hurt humiliate humanity who reject you and your racism. how you are racists murdering cops who exist for those exchanges. Even the set up is a sadistic master turn on the whole fucking thing is nauseating and then the after clean the blood up after the scene routine the put the slave back in the slave hole is beyond silence it makes want to vomit and never stop vomiting. leave humanity alone. fuck off racist cop unions no you dont look powerful or witty or anything smart to the world AMERICA is a mockery to the world because of your stupid bitch moves. Americans are powerful and voting for real leaders that will eradicate this evil racism by finding real cops who just do their work to serve and to protect humanity and thats it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
gwencalvo 8 27 20
”
”
Gwen Calvo
“
The first step of good democracy is to choose a good leader, or more importantly, to not choose an animal as a leader - yet we made that ghastly mistake in 2016 by electing the most non-presidential creature on earth as the leader of our United States of America. There are good presidents, there are not so good presidents, but the unique problem with the president that we chose in the previous election was that it was not even a civilized human to begin with - it was an "it" not a he or she or they, and even after being handed over the very lives of the people that savage beast showed no sign of accountability whatsoever.
Thus, we broke our democracy in 2016, but with sheer determination and conscientious persistence we have succeeded in fixing that mistake. Yes, I am filled with joy unspeakable to say out loud, that we have corrected our mistake and fixed the democracy into its usual imperfect but functional state. I say imperfect because democracy by nature is not perfect, but the problem we created last time was that we took things too far, and in the process turned a somewhat functional democracy into an absolutely dysfunctional one - in short, we broke it. And had the leader we chose been a smart one, that is, if that idiot had been not an idiot, but an actual cunning dictator, we wouldn't be celebrating our victory as a civilized people today, instead we would be mourning the burial of democracy.
Fortunately, the insane ravings of a brainless, spineless and heartless maniac will no longer have to be considered as the statements originating from the sacred office of the President of the United States of America. We have fixed the broken democracy - yes - but the problems that existed before the maniac came to power still exist today. Therefore, we may cherish the restoration of our democracy as much as we want, the real work begins now. Choosing a proper human as a President doesn't magically make the problems of our nation disappear - those problems still exist - and they'll continue to give us chills time and again, unless we as a people stand accountable, both the government and the citizenry alike, and start working on those problems. Remember, the United States of America is not the responsibility of merely the President, the Vice President and their administration, it is the responsibility of each and every one of us whose veins carry the spirit of liberty and whose nerves carry the torrents of bravery.
We have won the battle of making the White House human again, but the war has just begun - the war against systemic racism, against misogyny, against homophobia, against islamophobia, against gun violence, and against post-pandemic health and economic crisis. So, though we may celebrate the victory for a short while, we mustn't lose sight of the issues - we must now actually start working as one people - as the American people to heal the wounds on the soul of our land of liberty. It's time to once again start dreaming and working towards the impossible dream - the dream of freedom not oppression, the dream of assimilation not discrimination, and above all, the dream of ascension not descension. Never forget my friend, AMERICA means Affectionate, Merciful, Egalitarian, Responsible, Inclusive, Conscientious and Accepting.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Sleepless for Society)
“
I’m reminded of the story of the village idiot whose antique watch stopped running. He pried it open and found a dead cockroach inside. “No wonder it doesn’t work,” he said, “the manager is dead.
”
”
Gerald M. Weinberg (Becoming a Technical Leader)
“
That is a good idea,” said Dave. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.” “Because you’re an idiot?” Carl suggested. “Hey, you didn’t think of either,” said Dave. “That’s because it’s not my job to think,” said Carl. “It’s my job to say cool catchphrases and bash bad guys. You’re the leader — so you’re the one who has to think of plans.
”
”
Dave Villager (Dave the Villager 37: An Unofficial Minecraft Series (The Legend of Dave the Villager))
“
It’s an open secret Malaysia’s elections are rigged.
When you have constituencies with barely 18,000 voters and also those with more than 130,000 voters you know something’s not right.
When the TV and radio sing the praises of Barisan every evening and even a water-shortage is exploited to show ‘helpers’ wearing Barisan t-shirts, you’d have to be an idiot to believe everything’s fair and square.
And when none of the Barisan big-shots ever get into serious trouble with the law and never get any time in jail (unlike the Opposition leaders), it’s obvious Malaysian democracy is some kind of sham.
”
”
Alwyn Lau (Jampi)
“
They say leaders leads by instance but is idiotic when a leader guide in a wrong example so perfect.
”
”
Ben Bereng