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There Are No Stupid Questions Just Stupid People |
Thinking is one of the more difficult obstacles that humanity has faced in its short time on earth. Thinking when doing nothing else is not too difficult; thinking when pressed, or when doing anything along with thinking, though, is a different animal altogether. For example, thinking of an article, at the final minute, when the head honcho tells you that you can't leave until you've finished, is difficult. That is why I don't feel more rancor towards people who ask stupid questions. I realize that it is very difficult to think when doing other things, like breathing.
But, all things being equal, stupid questions are a tad irritating. Wait, that's not quite right. Seeing as there are no stupid questions, just stupid people, I must revise that statement and say instead that stupid people are a tad irritating. But as this article concerns questions, I must save the stupid people for another time.
"How are you?" is a fairly innocuous question all by itself. But when posed, this question is easily one of the more irritating in the American vernacular. "How are you?" is not meant to be answered honestly. If somebody actually told you how they were feeling when you asked them, i.e. I've got dysentery, my dog died, my foot just got run over, and my hemorrhoids are acting up, you would stare at them with unblinking eyes and a gaping jaw. Questions like this are irritating because most of the time there is only one response that should really be considered (which is "fine" or some derivative thereof.)
All questions which have obvious answers are necessarily annoying. Just a couple examples of questions with obvious answers would be "Are you ok?" after a high speed projectile has slammed into your forehead; or "Are you having trouble with your article?" after the person asked has been staring blankly at his or her computer for about two hours. One should consider the process of "thinking" before asking these sort of questions.
The most idiotic questions that can be asked, of course, are "Are you awake?" and "Is anyone home?" The only response that should ever be considered for these questions is "no." And if you do answer "yes", well, then you are a person of very little pretense. These questions can also be posed with a mocking tone, which is accompanied often with a rapping on the head. I have no problem with them when they are like that. Thought should be applied to a question before the actual asking takes place. But if the world was filled with intelligent questions all the time, then it would soon get boring. Stupid questions are irritating, but the world would be a sadder and sorrier place without them in it. No stupid questions would mean no stupid people (since stupid people can only ask stupid questions), and where would we be then?