Friday, October 24, 2003
No soy idiota.
I said these words quite innocently just over five years ago. I was sitting inside a cine in Almeria, Spain with my then-girlfriend, the lovely anduluciana, Irene, watching a movie aptly called "Abre Los Ojos" (Open Your Eyes). At one point during the movie, she found it necessary to explain to me a moment which had just transpired on screen. Now, as such a time has passed, I can't remember what that moment was, but I do remember feeling terribly insulted that she would think I didn't understand what happened. So my only response was, "No soy idiota."
Irene found it terribly funny. She knew I was no idiot, yet she failed to see the insult I had just taken. Indeed, when I saw her last a couple years ago, she still found the moment funny. I do not.
Now, having matured a bit in these past years, those words ring true every single day. I still do not find them amusing. In fact, I find them more and more necessary. I work in an industry known as Real Estate, and deal regularly with those people who deal regularly in Real Estate. These people are known as Agents, Brokers and Officers, with various words preceding those titles, such as 'Real Estate', 'Mortgage', or 'Loan'.
Now, in what has been described as the best investment market in the economy of this country, you would expect to find the best & brightest working in this market. Indeed, more money has been made on real estate throughout our history that any other single industry and I would venture to guess that real estate may have made more money than all other industries combined. Consider that the wealthiest people in the world are the royal family of Britain. Not coincidentally, they are the wealthiest land owners.
But as has become true with so much of the world, those titles above would best work with a suffix, not a prefix. And that suffix should be 'of Idiocy'.
That, however, is beside the point. It is becoming a well known fact amongst the thinkers that most people in this world are idiots. Hell, you'll regularly find most idiots in disbelief at the number of idiots in the world. The problem now lies in the fact that it has become so commonplace, that I have begun to feel it necessary to begin every conversation with someone I meet with the disclaimer, "Before we begin, you should know that I am not an idiot."
Now, it's one thing to not know something. For instance, I have a friend who programs the computer technology on SMART bombs. I know absolutely nothing about computer programming, and very little with regard to physics. He, in turn, knows very little about real estate law, of which I know a great deal. So, does this make either of us an idiot in that category? No. We are ignorant of the other's specialization, but we are not idiots. Nonetheless, if I tried to enter a conversation with this friend and add my own thoughts about programming missiles, I would then become an idiot. It is precisely this lesson that idiots do not understand: Speak of what you are knowledgeable, and listen to that of which you are ignorant. It is also precisely what makes a person an idiot.
There are excuses for ignorance. There are excuses for lack of intelligence. But to know nothing of the topic in which you speak, and worse, the industry in which you work, is entirely and completely unacceptable. There can be no excuse for idiocy, except, ironically, idiocy...
Having said all of the above, I will let the topic rest. Idiot is a very difficult word to deal with; if you delve too deeply, as I may have done, you may be describing yourself.
I said these words quite innocently just over five years ago. I was sitting inside a cine in Almeria, Spain with my then-girlfriend, the lovely anduluciana, Irene, watching a movie aptly called "Abre Los Ojos" (Open Your Eyes). At one point during the movie, she found it necessary to explain to me a moment which had just transpired on screen. Now, as such a time has passed, I can't remember what that moment was, but I do remember feeling terribly insulted that she would think I didn't understand what happened. So my only response was, "No soy idiota."
Irene found it terribly funny. She knew I was no idiot, yet she failed to see the insult I had just taken. Indeed, when I saw her last a couple years ago, she still found the moment funny. I do not.
Now, having matured a bit in these past years, those words ring true every single day. I still do not find them amusing. In fact, I find them more and more necessary. I work in an industry known as Real Estate, and deal regularly with those people who deal regularly in Real Estate. These people are known as Agents, Brokers and Officers, with various words preceding those titles, such as 'Real Estate', 'Mortgage', or 'Loan'.
Now, in what has been described as the best investment market in the economy of this country, you would expect to find the best & brightest working in this market. Indeed, more money has been made on real estate throughout our history that any other single industry and I would venture to guess that real estate may have made more money than all other industries combined. Consider that the wealthiest people in the world are the royal family of Britain. Not coincidentally, they are the wealthiest land owners.
But as has become true with so much of the world, those titles above would best work with a suffix, not a prefix. And that suffix should be 'of Idiocy'.
That, however, is beside the point. It is becoming a well known fact amongst the thinkers that most people in this world are idiots. Hell, you'll regularly find most idiots in disbelief at the number of idiots in the world. The problem now lies in the fact that it has become so commonplace, that I have begun to feel it necessary to begin every conversation with someone I meet with the disclaimer, "Before we begin, you should know that I am not an idiot."
Now, it's one thing to not know something. For instance, I have a friend who programs the computer technology on SMART bombs. I know absolutely nothing about computer programming, and very little with regard to physics. He, in turn, knows very little about real estate law, of which I know a great deal. So, does this make either of us an idiot in that category? No. We are ignorant of the other's specialization, but we are not idiots. Nonetheless, if I tried to enter a conversation with this friend and add my own thoughts about programming missiles, I would then become an idiot. It is precisely this lesson that idiots do not understand: Speak of what you are knowledgeable, and listen to that of which you are ignorant. It is also precisely what makes a person an idiot.
There are excuses for ignorance. There are excuses for lack of intelligence. But to know nothing of the topic in which you speak, and worse, the industry in which you work, is entirely and completely unacceptable. There can be no excuse for idiocy, except, ironically, idiocy...
Having said all of the above, I will let the topic rest. Idiot is a very difficult word to deal with; if you delve too deeply, as I may have done, you may be describing yourself.
