GR and the rest of the military loonies read the paragraph on the military inbalance.
Why we need fools in this world
By Loucas Charalambous
ONE of the best texts on stupidity was penned by the sociologist Evangelos Lembesis (1906-1968) who had it published in The Journal of Greek Lawyers, in 1941, under the headline ‘The immense social significance of the fool in contemporary life’.
I do not know whether Lembesis published his article in the lawyers’ journal because he wanted to make a point about the big presence of the species in the profession. What I do know is that among lawyers, political stupidity is rife.
I watched last Tuesday’s much-talked about studio debate about rotating presidency and weighted voting on Antenna TV and I would like to offer a piece of advice to Toumazos Tselepis, the president’s adviser, who walked out of the show, when his fellow panellists started questioning his qualifications and suitability for the job.
A serious professional should not subject himself humiliation by opting to face the concentrated political stupidity of four lawyers and a TV presenter. Has he not heard that stupidity – political or otherwise – is invincible?
If he is still wondering why he had become the target of the other studio guests and the presenter, Lembesis provides an answer in his article. “The simple presence of an intelligent person is, as a rule, provocative in the extreme to the fool.”
Lembesis said he had not sought any other literature for his study, because “truly, the wealth of empirical evidence is huge.” This ‘wealth’ was on display on Antenna’s show.
One of the guests, Christos Triantafyllides, considered it an outrage to have improved a provision included in the Annan plan. His reasoning was that, as the plan had been rejected, an improvement of one of its provision was totally out of order.
In other words, any settlement plan must be brand new. Even the use of words found in the 9,000 pages of that plan must be prohibited. Perhaps we should invent a new alphabet for writing the new settlement deal, because if we use the traditional alphabet the agreement would stink.
The fact that just a year after the referendum, then President Tassos Papadopoulos drafted a list of 12 changes he wanted made to the Annan plan in order to accept it in its entirety, seems to be of no significance to Triantafyllides. Why this political star is an adviser to DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades nobody knows.
A young lawyer by the name of Giorgos Christodoulou, who was also a guest on the show, for unknown reasons, made an astonishing revelation. Rotating presidency was not a proposal made by Christofias: it was made by the Turks. He repeated the phrase ‘proposal of the Turks’ about 10 times.
In other words, for this ambitious legal-eagle, a peace agreement, that would have to be accepted by the Turkish Cypriots, as it would determine their future as well, cannot include a provision that is based on their proposal. Is this, such a crime? Was he suggesting that all the provisions of the deal must be dictated by the Greek Cypriots, because we are smarter?
A big bombshell was dropped in the studio by another Anastassiades adviser – former New Horizons deputy Christos Clerides. With the settlement, he said, Turkey wanted, at all costs, to dissolve our state and govern us Greeks through the Turkish Cypriot vice-president.
Nobody appears to have informed Clerides that Turkey has two army divisions in Cyprus that could crush us within a few hours – and they will continue to have them for as long as the legions of fool oppose a settlement. In short, if Ankara wanted to dissolve our state, it could do so much more effectively with the occupation army rather than through a Turkish Cypriot vice-president.
Fools had great usefulness, Lembesis observed, because with their presence they ensured some kind of differentiation in society – its division into the intelligent and the stupid. Without their existence there would be equality and everyone would be considered intelligent. I think this is more relevant in reference to political stupidity. Tselepis should take solace from the fact that if this were the case, he would not have stood out.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2009
What do you think we are here on Cyprus? Marine animals like penguins (GCs) and sea lions (TCs) who must share a patch of rock during the mating season while David Attenborough (Turkey) overlooks the peace? 
