The word “idiot” comes from the ancient Greek “idios”, meaning roughly “one’s own internal self”. So, to be an idiot is to be a person who is fixated on one’s own internal self, oblivious to the external world.
Since idiocy is the quality of being an idiot, idiocy is associated with stupidity. Yet, they’re not exactly the same thing. Since stupidity is commonly understood as being unintelligent, in order to understand stupidity one first needs to understand intelligence.
While being more intelligent is being able to solve more problems, being less intelligent is being able to solve fewer problems. In comparison, unintelligence is the opposite of the ability to solve problems.
When people engage in idiocy, by being fixated on their own internal self and oblivious to the external world, they tend to create more problems than they solve. This is why idiocy is associated with stupidity.
So then, what is fear?
This means that fear is not the same as danger, which is an actual threat. For example, people are often more afraid of talking to a stranger than they are of crossing a busy street, even though crossing a busy street is generally much more dangerous than talking to a stranger. You see, danger is real — but fear is not.
In fact, fears are mental viruses. So, it helps to understand what viruses are.
Fundamentally, a virus is a set of instructions that repurposes the processes of a host to survive and spread at the host’s expense. This is true for every type of virus, from computer viruses to colds and beyond.
So, as a mental virus, fears are instructions in the form of ideas that repurpose the processes of human thought. These ideas serve to ensure the survival and spread of themselves at the expense of our ability to think clearly and accurately.
Since fear is an illusion of the mind, engaging in fear results in being fixated on your own internal ideas while being oblivious to the external world. As a result, fear is idiotic.
This is because illness is a decreased ability to function, as compared with wellness which is an increased ability to function. This is why viruses spread illness.
By ridding yourself of your fears, you increase the ability of your mind to function, which increases your ability to function in other ways as well. So, by freeing yourself of your fears, you decrease idiocy, which decreases your stupidity, which increases your intelligence and increases your wellness.
Sounds like a smart deal, eh?