“Is Stupidity Fixable?”
by Kelvin H. Chin
Life After Life Expert
My experience based on my memories over at least the past 6,000 years has taught me that most people lack an ability to discern and think clearly. This makes us extremely vulnerable and susceptible to being fooled by clever people in powerful positions in society, e.g., politicians, religious or spiritual leaders, and even our childhood friends on the school playground, who know how to manipulate ideas to make them sound attractive to us, yet may actually be harmful to us. And which may be very beneficial to the spreader of those ideas.
Does that mean most of us are inherently stupid?
I don’t think so. I think labeling us “stupid” implies that it is not fixable. It implies that somehow “we are born that way.” In spiritual circles, they often use the “consciousness level” label, which I eschew. I think it is inappropriate to label someone a certain level of consciousness. It implies lack of ability to grow, and a hubris by the labeler.
Now, have I ever called other people “stupid”? Sure. But I look at it as a temporary comment on a specific behavior. So it is fixable. It can change if the person wants to think more clearly, more rationally. But it is a choice.
Some of you may remember the very popular TV show (back when there were only 3 TV stations in the U.S. — ABC, CBS and NBC) “Gilligan’s Island.” In that show a fictional group of people who went out for a relaxing cruise on a yacht (the “S.S. Minnow”) got stranded on a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean. The show’s 98 episodes ran from 1964 to 1967. During that time, the U.S. Coast Guard received on average 2,500 letters a week from American viewers asking, “Why haven’t you rescued those people stranded on Gilligan’s Island?”
In 1965, the population of the U.S. was 195 million. Today it is 340 million. In today’s numbers, that would translate to about 4,300 letters per week (over 200,000 a year) from viewers who did not have the mental discernment to realize that this was a TV show filmed in a studio in Studio City, California, replete with canned laughter. And that the people in it were actors, not real people “stranded on a tropical island.” And this, even though the theme song that aired before every one of the 98 episodes makes it very clear this is a weekly show, ending with:
“So join us here each week my friends,
You’re sure to get a smile,
From seven stranded castaways,
Here on Gilligan’s Isle.”
How could that be, you may ask?
Lack of ability to discern. Lack of ability to think rationally.
These letter writers were not inherently “stupid.” I don’t think they were “born that way.” They simply lacked the ability to think clearly. They never developed that skill. No one ever taught them.
So, I think the solution is to teach people how to think more clearly. Give them scenarios like Gilligan’s Island to show them how — with real life examples — to make logical, rational judgments that make sense.
The issue of course is getting our leaders to see that having a “clearer thinking” population is in their best interest. That is a tough sell to them. Because many of our leaders have gotten so good at manipulating the feelings of others that teaching them “how to think clearly” is not at the top of their To Do List.
Consequently we are where we are today in 2025. Where social media and the internet have created the playing field for unfiltered spreading of irrational conspiracy theories and other types of cognitively dissonant thinking. All of which fuel the wider manipulation of the masses by leaders who may choose the “corruption” rather than the “beneficence” route to ruling others.
So what can we do?
We can each individually choose to become more rational, logical thinkers. And take action to accomplish that objective by continually asking ourselves,
“Does that make sense?”
“What is the logical evidence for that?”
“Convince me.”
Instead of blindly believing what somebody has told us.
Question it before we adopt it into our belief system.
Is that more work than blindly following whatever someone else tells you? Sure. But would you rather be yet another sheep being led to what could be an unpleasant future? Or someone who is more confident with yourself about what path you have chosen?
For me the choice is crystal clear.
How about you?