Higher Stupidity

by TDJ

I graduated from high school back in 1999, naively thinking that my days of dealing with morons and idiots were over. I thought that my days spent watching these idiots punch, chase, abuse and burn each other at lunch time was over. Well, in a way it is. But I now have the unfortunate privilege of associating with this new breed of idiot at university.

These people seem to manifest themselves in many different ways and situations. Most often during lectures and other times of learning importance. I will be sitting there before the lecture chatting to the person next to me, then about five minutes before the lecture I find myself being deafened by the guy behind me yelling to his friend across the room about which side of the lecture theatre they should sit on. After the few minutes of yelling and finding a seat, he’ll proceed to tell his friend every inane detail of his last thirty-five minutes of existence, (because that’s all his memory span will allow).

At this point in time, I’ve calmed down a bit and started to try and understand what the lecturer is explaining. The lecturer is starting to build to an important point, and then out of the blue “Excuse me Professor!” There is a collective groan around the theatre, it’s him, asking if the lecturer can change the color of the chalk he’s using, or if he can make sure the air conditioner is on because “it’s a bit stuffy in here.” After the Professor has had to deal with the indignity of answering to the idiots’ request, he spends the rest of the lecture writing the notes on the board and briefly explaining the content.

During the forty five minutes of supposed learning, some ones phone will ring twice, three people will turn up late, burst through the door and walk in front of the lecturer to get to their seat. Quite a few people will also loose their ability to whisper, then proceed to tell each other pointless facts and frivolous spelling errors the Math lecturer made. Then five minutes before the lecture is over, half the class will start packing up, creating a din that would drown out the noise of postal worker mowing down his co-workers with an AK47.

These supposedly academically gifted people are destined to become the next generation of professionals (i.e. Engineers, Doctors, Lawyers, Scientists etc.). Yet the world is in grave danger if this is true, otherwise, buildings will fall, people will be killed, the innocent will be jailed, and nothing new discovered. The reality is however is that most of the people who fit into this category won’t pass their degree, or if they do by some wonder of scaling, they will be employed by some unknown company destined to go under in the next year or so.

These people aren’t the bane of my existence by any stretch of the imagination, but they make everyone’s life just that little more frustrating. I could point out their faults and suggest a good councilor, but they have enough problems at it is. Yet I think I’m the one with the problem: I expect too much of people. I expect people to treat each other with respect, and most people to act their age when in an appropriate environment. But I’m proven wrong yet again. Every now and again I’d like to be proven right, just sometimes.

TDJ