Our good fortune: the barrier of idiocy is always raised against the idiot. We never really know how stupid we are.
There’s a song of idiocy. A forlorn song. That is of half knowing one’s idiocy – the curse of one’s idiocy. The tragedy of it. And the tragedy of knowing that one doe not know and cannot know one’s idiocy. That idiocy can never think beyond idiocy, encompassing it. That the idiot can never think from the other side of idiocy.
The finitude of idiocy. Idiocy’s limitations. The poor dull eyes of the idiot, locked into their idiocy. The poor idiot’s brain, which can only think so much.
Unless idiocy is also a kind of insulation. Unless idiocy actually protects you from knowing the truth – the terrible truth. Unless idiocy is a version of a protective coma, into which the body sends you when reality becomes too much. Unless idiocy is a shield, a carapace, which prevents the total collapse that the real philosopher would feel.
We’re protected. Idiocy protects us. Holds it to its bosom. Keeps us out of total danger. Total exposure. Which is why we’ve kept our sanity, such as it is. Which is why we it hasn’t led us into the fate of Hölderlin, of Nietzsche.
We’re lucky, in a way. Idiocy keeps us as at distance from it, the truth. Idiot says its protective spell over us. Idiocy keeps us alive. Idiocy is a thought-helmet. A thought cage, like a shark cage. Idiocy is the bathysphere that protects us in the deepest depths.
The idiot always stands in their own way. Idiocy blocks the idiot. It’s their original sin. It’s what idiocy can’t get past.
*A banal idiocy: that’s what has to be avoided. A complacent idiocy. Idiocy should always struggle against idiocy, Livia said. Idiocy should be in mortal combat with idiocy.
*A workaday idiocy. An idiocy content to go about in idiocy. Never that!
Idiocy must suffer itself, that’s the thing. It must suffer its idiocy. Must find itself unbearable, its idiocy. Idiocy must despise idiocy, the very stuff from which it’s made. Which means that it wants only to become something other than idiocy. Even as it’s condemned to idiocy, and to nothing other than idiocy.
The idiocy plunge. Like an ice-bath for her, for Livia. Refreshing, in its way. Enlivening. The splash of water on the face. There she was, figuratively diving with idiocy, just as you might dive with dolphins. Enjoyable, in its way. Enlivening, for an old non idiot like her.
The innocence of idiocy is too be enjoyed. Idiocy, disporting: a fine sight. Idiocy at play, like dolphins at play. Idiocy, leaping up to the height of idiocy. Trying to break the surface of idiocy, with its idiot leaps. And failing to do so – failing to break the surface. But failing charmingly. Laughingly. Which provokes laughter in turn. Joyful laughter. Idiots do the funniest things, right?
The idiocy-spring. The idiocy-origin. Fresh from it. Sparking with it.
The innocence of idiocy. Idiocy, fresh from the idiotsprung, as Livia called it. From the origin of idiocy.
You can savour it, idiocy. Sip at it.
Idiocy nectar. The honey of idiocy, slipping down the throat.
The idiocy sparkle. The nothing-but-idiocy.
Idiocy’s dance. Idiocy’s joy. As it comes into itself. As it returns to itself. As it takes it leaps – its idiocy leaps. As it cries out in idiot-exaltation. In idiot joy. In its idiot simplicity. Its idiot-innocence …
There are times when idiocy need not suffer itself. When idiocy is relieved from despising itself. When idiocy plays. Disports. When idiocy larks about.
Idiocy’s skylarking. Idiocy’s frigging in the rigging of life. Idiocy’s cavorting. Idiocy’s clambering over itself …
Idiocy, among the idiots. Idiocy, between the idiots.
Idiots’ banter. Idiocy’s to-and-fro.
The idiocy pell mell. The idiocy chaos.
Idiocy, swarming. Overspilling. Idiocy frothing. And frothing over! Idiocy, foaming. idiocy’s bubbles, popping under the idiocy’s sun.
Idiocy’s champagne …
Idiot’s outside, always outside. Under the idiot sky, the idiot stars, the idiot sun, the idiot moon. Idiocy, on the idiot earth.
The idiot-leap. Out of idiocy? No: into idiocy.
Idiocy can never beak out of idiocy. Transcend idiocy.
Idiocy’s only ever a deepening of idiocy.
Idiocy’s increase. Idiocy’s pressure.
The density of idiocy. Idiocy gathering and loosening. Idiocy hardening, clotting. And idiocy loosening again. Finding its flow. Becoming liquid. Deliquescing.
Work in Progress 