• Ignorance is Awesome!

    A short story by C. Argentine


    Okay, so I had recently spent the best part of an hour having a browse through the Gaia Online Writing Arena, checking out people's work and seeing what Gaians are capable of. And I have to admit, my mind was blown.

    The limited selection of material I did read through was very thought provoking... philosophy, psychology, politics... it was all in there. After a while I had to take a break from reading further in case my brain became overloaded from the barrage of thoughts I was developing thanks to everybody's work.

    Though don't take this as a solely good thing. Not everything that my mind was being encouraged to debate was very happy or inspiring stuff. In fact, a hell of a lot of the ideas I was coming up with were pretty pessimistic and cynical. I had often found this the case in the past as well; whenever I start thinking deeply about a certain subject, it isn't long before the harsh and unforgiving reality of the subject comes along and slaps me hard in the face.

    Shortly after I retreated from the mental battlefield of the Arena, my housemate came downstairs carrying his old broken computer and asked me if I thought we could get away with putting it in our rubbish bin for the collection on Tuesday. After a short discussion we agreed it was probably too big and heavy to fit in our bin, so we came up with a carefully considered solution.

    I picked up a hammer, handed it to my friend, and we went nuts.

    Fifteen minutes later, my friend's faithful companion for many a university essay was lying in pieces on the floor. Cover plates were bent and twisted, wires were torn out and hanging loosely from their sockets, and the remains of beheaded screws littered the carpet. But this wasn't enough for us. The sound card and circuit boards had yet to pay the price for malfunctioning and almost causing my friend to lose his entire hard drive contents.

    And so we introduced the air pistol to the scenario. We set up a makeshift shooting range in our hallway and took turns in playing the firing squad for the traitorous technology. Bits and pieces went flying off, dents were made in plastic thingies and a few stray pellets ended up in the kitchen, and all in all we had a good laugh.

    Then an interesting thought came to mind. Trying to expand my intellectual horizons by experiencing the art of others led me down a path into a depressing critique on the cruel world we live in. Random, unnecessary, thoughtless destruction of redundant technology brought a smile to my face and gave me and my housemate a memory that will stay with us long after we part ways at the end our degree.

    Think what you like of me and my friend, but in my mind this experience reinforced a belief I had held for many years. Taking life less seriously and letting your intelligence take a break every now and then makes the whole experience a lot more fun.

    So, this is my message to everybody who spends more time thinking than they spend actually doing things... go out there, do something stupid, enjoy yourself, and give a two fingered salute to the consequences!



    By the way, did you know that sound cards are practically indestructible when up against an air pistol?

    The End