The High School Theory

Stupidity is not as bad as it sounds


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The High School Theory
by Midwesty
20-Feb-2008
 

It is amazing to know how simple things are before we make them too complicated. Look at our lives and see sometimes how small things get the snow ball effect and run us over smashing our bones and leaving us hurt and broken. This is because we are fused with the material and the laws of science and we sometimes think we can defy these laws like a superman/woman. But that’s exactly where likely we get hurt.

In mountain hiking, the experienced hikers always tell you to not to get so cocky against nature. Be moderate and step forward slowly and with respect. This doesn’t mean that we should back off when we see a problem. The genius of human brain holds the key to all “human problems”. The only thing we should do is to unravel the solutions from the turns and curves of the gray matter of our brains. The solution sometimes might be in science.

Please bear with me as I don’t intend to show off or bring about a complex scientific theory where I know there are many of you that are much more knowledgeable about this subject than I am.

To start the discussion, let’s all agree to the answer of this question. What is the difference between a scientific principle and a scientific theory? One might say a scientific principal is a scientific observation that always holds its value true no matter what.

That’s why in Apollo 15 mission to the moon amongst all the sophisticated hi-tech apparatus and instruments on board there were a hammer and a feather to verify Galileo principle that had concluded hundreds of years before, “all objects released together fall at the same rate regardless of mass”. A scientific law is an undefeated claim. However a scientific theory is a scientific observation that awaits further scrutinizes until it passes all of the tests and settles all its objections until it gets promoted to the level of a scientific law.

My introduction was to commence a very useful law in science that can be utilized in our everyday lives. It is the Superposition Principle. Based on this scientific law any nonlinear and complex problem (when I say any I means any) can be broken down into a few or many simple, linear, and uncorrelated subsets. Since this is not a theory and it is much more fundamental than a theory, because it’s been tested over and over by many scientists across many disciplines, it can be applied equally to all other branches of science such as Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, and so on.

As we know nowadays they call history a science, psychology a science, politics a science and many more other field of studies as sciences. I am not also intending to get into that venue and devalue any of these branches of study. These are respectable academic curriculums and there might be one day that they become part of a solid branch of science.

On the other hand, there is a ‘theory’ called the “Universal Theory”, which explains that all laws and principles of different divisions of science should be applicable interchangeably in any other branches of sciences and also so-called semi-sciences such as “Social Sciences”. For example Newton’s third law in Physics says, “for every force there is one and only one force equal in pair with the same magnitude but in different direction”.

This simply says when you are punishing your kid and giving him push-ups while he is pushing against the floor the floor is also pushing against him. This is a law in physics and based on the “Universal Theory”, it might be possible that the Newton’s third law be also applicable in the “social sciences”. This means that there might be an underlying scientific reason behind the statement “what goes around comes around”.

So with all these I want to say anybody can be a scientist. You don’t need a laboratory or precise instruments. What you need is a pair of scientific eyes, ears or senses to observe or scrutinize things without a pretext or prejudgment.

But I wish every thing in the real life was as simple as this. You and I know that it isn’t, and we might know why. “Management scientists”, if there is any term as such, blame the hardships of life on the “human factor”. “Human factor” is the most respectable and politically correct term to call for “human stupidity”.

Stupidity is not as bad as it sounds. I like to define it as “an unpopular action originated from the outtermost layer of the brain” or something like that! It is ok though. This is what makes us as humans. We choose, we decide, we act upon and the results are sometimes desirable and sometimes are not. This is what makes us different from any other Darwinian species. Other species are in harmonious relationship with the nature but humans are made of different fabric. We are not in 100% accordance with the nature that’s why we have to be careful not destroying it.

What I want to say all night is that I have a theory on my own. I like sciences, and try to observe things in a scientific way with no pretext because, again, prejudgment is the number one cause of premature death of scientific observation. Accordingly, after many years of observation, I developed this theory and came to believe that:

“Most people stop growing after high school”! You might just have said out loud the glorious sentence, ”Duh…That was it”? No wait. Let me explain.

We all know that we physiologically stop growing around the age of eighteen. This is a scientific fact but based on my observation, many of us also stop maturing psychologically around the same time. It seems regardless of all the experiences we have gained after the age of eighteen and we should have come across them as a valuable lesson, we still mange to end up saying, “I should’ve learned that the first time around”. To make you feel good I should say you are not in it alone. There are many of us doing the same thing everyday. Another reason that shouldn’t have felt bad about it is that you can’t even start reading the history without seeing that it repeats itself over and over.

So, we all came to this sad or funny conclusion, depending on which way you are looking at it, from Kafka, Hedayat, and Hemingway’s direction, or Chekhov, Tonekaboni, or Tolstoy’s, the whole world at best is like a gigantic high school, and all the rules of high school that we’ve learned the hard way apply wholly. Now let’s bring forward from the back of our minds our “High School Survival Guide” and let’s start reading it. I am sure most of us read it as the followings:

Bullies: Stay away from them at all times, in case they found you there is no escape, stand straight, clench your fist and watch for their weaknesses. They’re big but less mobile. Their balls are bigger or their hairs are longer too.

Geeks and Nerds: Stay with them but don’t get too close since bullies could track you down easier that way.

Poor and lazy kids: Talk to them and find out what have made them that way. Take a lesson and then take off. It’s too dangerous to stay too close to them because of contagious illnesses and laziness. Talk the nerds into carrying them to the principal’s office!

Snitches: They are the hardest to deal with. They are not big to be detected easily and they are usually close to the sources of power. Stay away from them as much as you can. Otherwise there are various ways to deal with them. First try to talk to them since snitches are greedy and can be bought easily. If that’s not possible then in the first opportunity trip them in the busy hall way without being detected. That way they’ll learn a lesson. If that doesn’t work then try to imitate them. That makes their heads busy so then they go nuts and then self-destruct. Never intimidate a snitch because he/she is already scared to death so then it might cause them to act out of control and tell on you.

The popular kids: Leave them alone; the closer you get to them the uglier they appear. It’s not always true that “the grass is greener on the other side of the fence”.

The moral of the story: Many people, including innocent kids, men and women, young and old everyday get killed because of sheer ... HIGH SCHOOL GAMES!


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Censorship and Freedom of Speech

by Anonymous6 (not verified) on

JJ and other admin,
Freedom of speech/expression is an absolute right in this society.

In your site you pretend to be an advocate of it by saying nothing is scared (what a joke!). Practically you are much worse than Mullahs. They don’t know anything better, you know and with your censorship with no real reason, downgrading yourself to the same level as mullahs!

This is my opinion that 'Ying Yang Paintings' in main page of Iranian.com is a trashy painting, and you don’t have any tolerance to hear it.

Go head again and delete my comment again as you did for past 12 hours.

Now is not the painting anymore it is your action and censorship that portrait you to the same low level as Mullahs


Daryush

Thanks

by Daryush on

Very well thought of. I enjoyed reading it.


Midwesty

All,

by Midwesty on

One time, a friend of mine (if he counts me in as friend) said the space below belongs to the reader. It made sense to me at the time and I tried very hard to stick with it however now I realized the space below can also be utilized to connect with the reader in a extraordinary way that no media could have ever offered to the readers and writers before. So respectfully I am slipping away from it.

 

Tahirih asked me to remove a word from my article and I agreed and then asked Jahanshah to do it. Jahanshah recommended to explain myself to you and say why(I got to love this man; he has a great respect for you) I don’t believe in self censuring for the sake of popularity. Who am I to you beside an avatar with a freaking bicycle on it? So the popularity cause is out of window.

 

I am not dogmatic religious either but I have purpose in my life. My writing can’t be excluded from the rest of my life. So my writing is also purposeful. However when I am writing I have to imagine an audience. Since I am very disappointed at middle-aged Iranians and you don’t want me to get there it won’t be pretty, I try to write to their kids to the younger generation and the one that would come across my scribbles by accidents 10 years from now and I don’t want to set a wrong example for them. That’s it!   


Midwesty

Dear Nazy

by Midwesty on

Thanks! Middle-aged Iranians for many reasons (which they can easily find them) are sour. At the same time we have been under tremendous emotional/sometimes other pressures much more than Iranians inside of Iran. This can be the number one cause for the lack of motivation to get out and do something constructive. Also we don’t trust each other simply because we have misused each other’s trust. Now if we were normal I could say hey let’s put together a function to raise money to get some Iranian kids to Lego Robotics competition. Let’s do running for charity to help Iranian cancer patients to get proper medication, let’s get Cyrus Kar to talk about his project, let’s have a book signing function for various Iranian writers. Let’s talk to Dr. so and so and send our kids to take a tour to Cape Canaveral, and many more things to do. But what we do is just to be bitter and bite. As you said it has nothing to do with age.


Midwesty

Tahirih

by Midwesty on

Thanks for your input I asked JJ to remove it but I don't know when he'll have time to do it. The English language lacks emotion. It is not like French, German and our well developed sensational language of Parsi. I did not mean profanity and apologize if it came across that way. Please feel free to correct me at anytime.


Nazy Kaviani

Who does care?

by Nazy Kaviani on

Dear Midwesty:

A very interesting read! It's true, some people never grow much beyond their high school years. Then again, there are people who grow up and become old too fast. As much as I love my old friends and family, I find hanging out with some people my own age could get a bit stifling sometimes, as many of them act sooooo old, ready to retire, roll over and die! I search and find continual joy and excitement in people who are active in cultural activities, writing, and the arts. Most of those I find interesting and challenging are invariably a lot younger than me.

I find more and more that age and wisdom are truly just states of mind, which each individual consciously chooses to own. Perhaps in your scientific approach to human behavior, you can figure out why so many middle-aged Iranians are deadset against participating in cultural activities, feeling content in going to work, watching TV, playing golf, and taking it easy in their free time, never attending a lecture, never braving participating in a peace rally, and never writing, and even worse yet, reading. What do you think happens in their minds to welcome retirement so prematurely and wholeheartedly? Aside from the fact that the word is not a charitable one, perhaps "stupidity" is not the proper way of addressing the issue--"apathy" might be a better choice. What do you think?


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Dear Midwesty:

by Tahirih (not verified) on

There is lots of wisdom in what you say ,but please ,do not use the last words that way.

Regards,
Tahirih


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