Ross and the Stupid people...

When Ross,the chaplain at my school and my good friend, retired... we got a new Principal at the school... and Ross warned me; "Be careful with him," he said... "He is vicious and very self-centered and retaliates viciously... That's what they did to a superintendent... Their family hit him very hard and he resigned his post and left the community too..." 

It is good that I retired after a year of his appointment... because he started demonstrating his dictatorial inclinations and his mean spirited policies... and after I retired, he was mean to a student who was bullied by a group of students... and instead of protecting the victim... he sided with the bullies... so as not to rock the boat... He called the police on the victim and eventually "expelled" him to another school...

This new principal was mean... and yesterday while reading about Detroit schools and principals... I remembered Ross and our principal and Ross's advice to me rang in my ears the whole day...

13 Principals Charged in a Bribery Scheme...

Authorities say the scheme basically boiled down to this: Shy, the head of the company , paid bribes and kickbacks to principals so they would allow their schools to be charged for supplies that were never delivered, like chairs, teaching materials, paper... The very things that students need to learn and schools need to function remained, frustratingly, out of reach.

.......

Ross was aware that power corrupts... he always reminded me of that fact... and suggested that one cannot do much about it... After all we are caught in the web and "They [that is, the establishment] have the power and the means to obliterate, destroy any individual...," he insisted... and cited from Franz Kafka's The Trial..."It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be sure of themselves." 

I, deep down, wanted him to be wrong... but unfortunately my life experience supported him... The Soviet Union was corrupt... People survived if they had connections... The Middle East was like that too... people survived if they knew higher ups... and they were killed if they were "nobody..."
Kafka had it right... It is their "stupidity" which makes them full of themselves and therefor "sure of themselves."
I was very much annoyed... and asked myself... All my life, did I struggle against their "stupidity"...? To fight stupidity is very difficult... in the classroom, in the principal's office... and in the courts... and in the serene sanctity of the caverns of the monasteries... I had done all and I had sort of failed...!
Ross humored himself by stressing the point, again from Kafka; "in man's struggle against the world, bet on the world." This quote, for some reason, was funny for Ross and he asked; "What does the 'world' refer to... the stupid bureaucrats and funny apparatchiks or Mother Nature... ?
Side with the "world", he stressed... before you are crushed... Because Mother Nature has the last word always... I think Ross was correct in this case... The ice caps are melting and the sea level will rise and the coastlines will be devastated... Mother Nature will always have the last word...
After quoting Kafka, Ross rested triumphantly... He had made a point...and he was happy... But he was not over yet... he wanted to mention yet another Kafka ambiguity referring to everything and anything; "You do not need to accept everything as true, you only have to accept it as necessary." 
Indeed truth and necessity are antagonistically complimentary... and Ross comprehended it...
I asked him; "Does that include religion too...?"
Ross just smiled... Did not answer... He let the question to float in the air... for a while... I knew he would have answered it on his own time... in the future... But the future never came... when he was crushed under the bus... 
He went to eternity... but his wisdom survived with me... maybe with others too...
... and I live with that every day... I am reminded of Ross's wisdom few times each day... When I read "stupidity" and when I hear "stupidity"... 
Check below...

The Apparatchiks Waste 86 Million on a Plane that cannot even Fly...

The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Defense spent more than $86 million on an aircraft for counter narcotics efforts in Afghanistan that has "never actually flown in Afghanistan," according to a Department of Justice inspector general report... This reads like a late night show comedy skit... but, unfortunately for the taxpayer it's true... Two U.S. agencies joined forces to spend $86 million on a plane to retro fit it... But as the report reads... the plane can't even get off the ground... The Defense Department and the DEA wanted to use the plane in Afghanistan for counter narcotics efforts. Over the past seven years, money was spent on tricking out the plane with surveillance and communication equipment and modifying a hanger the plane never used... because the DEA stopped its Afghan aviation mission last year... So where is the plane now? It's inoperable and sitting on blocks.

Ross was correct in his assessment... It is extremely difficult to struggle against..."stupidity"...

*** 

I am sure there are as many rights as there are people in the world... I am sure there are as many wrongs as there are people in the world... 

To dispute and attempt to convince others is a waste of time... So settle down and enjoy the day and live the moment... 

I am not sure what philosophy this is but I am sure that it is true... It is true because it is necessary... as Ross told me long time ago...

Wrong and right are relative too... and no matter what... Wrong and right are in the eyes (mind) of the beholder... 

So Ross told me... "do not argue... just let it be..."

A German football team painted their faces black... just to support two of their Sudanese players... who were attached recently... But they were criticized... because to wear black faces is "offensive" to 

some blacks and to some media pundits and some higher ups who, as Kafka stressed, are just "stupid"...

A German football club... to support two of its players have digitally altering its team photo to make the players appear black...               Deinster SV, a lower-league football club from the Lower Saxony region, posted the image on its Facebook page alongside a message detailing what happened to the men, both Sudanese refugees. "Violence against refugees is pathetic," the post reads. "Emad and Amar, you are one of us just like everyone else and we're happy you are with us."

To criticize this... is the job of the politically correct... stupids... 

Instead of focussing on the message and the good gesture... The politically correct stupids are saying that painting the faces black is demeaning to black people...
I have heard few time that my friend Ross swore... and one time he said... "Just fuck off... leave us alone..."
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And this other occasion... Messi, the world famous football player... donates his boots to be auctioned for charity...
But, Messi’s boots create controversy in Egypt... ... ... ... 
In the Middle Eastern, Arab culture... boots are demeaning and insulting... So, the politically correct stupids... blame Messi for donating his boots... instead of celebrating the money that the boots will bring in for the charity...
I guess Ross was right... you cannot educate Kafka's "stupids"
and I guess I will agree with Kafka and Ross too...