Henry Miller said: "One can fight evil, but one cannot fight stupidity."

One can fight the entire world, argue with an enemy, negotiate with an opponent, or debate a dissenter. One can be patient with an ignorant person who wants to learn, but when one comes to someone who has closed his mind, he declares defeat. The enemy may know his own interest, the opponent may understand your argument even if he does not accept it, the dissenter may show you what you have not seen, and the ignorant person who asks may surpass a scholar who has stopped asking.

As for someone who refuses to think, you do not know how to debate him because he does not want to understand; he wants you to agree with him.

The irony is that all this happens in the best possible time for those who want to know. If we look at our situation today, we find that all knowledge is at our fingertips.

There is no question but you find an answer for it, no piece of information but you can verify it, no field but you find someone to explain it to you from a thousand doors, and yet there are still those who surrender their minds to the first person they meet.

Go ahead, my friend, fill it with whatever you want.

Fake news? No problem.

Rumor? Welcome.

But to search, verify, and think—that seems like a luxury that has not yet reached them.

I am not speaking here of a poor person trapped by need, nor of a person burdened by circumstances, nor of someone who did not have the opportunities that others had.

I am speaking of the one who can move but does not move, then gets angry because others have surpassed him.

And whoever does not want to advance often does not like to see others advance either. So when he sees a successful person, the investigation begins: Who helped him? Who does he know? Who is backing him? No one has worked hard, no one has learned, no one has achieved through his own effort. This one is lucky, that one has connections, and this one certainly has someone behind him.

All possibilities are considered except the possibility that the person actually worked hard.

Frankly, this is unconvincing talk. And perhaps this is the cleverest trick that humans have invented to protect themselves from feeling inadequate.

Do not admit that you did not try; say that trying is useless.

Do not admit that you did not learn; say that the educated do not understand life.

Do not admit that others made an effort; say they are lucky.

In this way, you can remain in your place for many years without being disturbed by a single question.

True, we do not all have the same opportunities or the same luxury, but we all have the same phone.

One uses it to learn a language, and the other uses it to know the details of the lives of seven people he has never met.

Both held the same phone.

One used it to learn, verify, and develop himself until he became stronger than before, and the other used the same tool to fill his head with rumors, trivialities, and others' opinions until he became less capable of thinking than before.

The first used technology to empower himself, and the second used it quite efficiently to increase his stupidity. Then they meet years later, and the second looks at the first and says:

"Some people are lucky."

Yes. Luck is indeed a strange creature; it seems to know well where to find those who use what is in their hands.

How comforting it is to believe that everyone who preceded you was lucky! Luck spares you embarrassing questions.

No need to ask what they learned, how many times they failed, how many years they were patient, or what they did with their time.

It is enough to say:

"His circumstances helped him," then return with a clear conscience to the circumstances that did not help you,

and spend the rest of the evening with them.

The problem is not that a person does not know. We all do not know many things, and the phrase "I do not know" does not diminish anyone. Not knowing is natural.

But the problem, as I see it, begins with two types of people:

The first does not know but is completely convinced that he knows. He argues, stubbornly persists, and shows off. Whenever you try to explain to him, you discover that he was not waiting for an explanation at all; he was waiting for you to agree with him.

The second does not know and knows he does not know, but he does not want to know. This too is fine, except that he insists on philosophizing about his ignorance.

The strange thing is that a person maintains things he does not use.

He takes the car out so it does not rust, charges the phone so the battery does not die, and opens windows to let in air, but he may leave his mind in a dark place for years, then be surprised when it does not work as it should. As if the mind is the only thing that improves with neglect.

No one is required to be a genius, to know everything, or to reach the top of the list. But it is hard not to marvel at a person who is given the ability to learn and uses it to explain the reasons that left him no time to learn or work. He is given the ability to think and uses it to invent reasons that prevent him from thinking. He is given time to give, learn, and work, and he spends it all complaining that he does not have time.

This is not a lack of resources; this is a rare talent for wasting them. And that is why one may fight the entire world, but when he reaches this type of ignorance, he withdraws—not out of incapacity, but because continuing with him is a drain on his time, mind, and nerves in a strange battle. Helpless before this puzzle: How do you help a person who lacks not ability but the desire to use it? How do you push forward someone who has found a comfortable spot at the end of the line, sat down in it, and then criticized the order of those standing?

Only then does one declare defeat, for there is nothing harder than fighting the world for a person’s sake, only to discover that the last obstacle in his way is himself.

In fact, stupidity is like snoring: the one doing it sleeps deeply and peacefully, while those around him seriously contemplate committing a crime.

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- A Yemeni writer residing in Sweden