1 of 4 Idiot, in Greek: originally not a disrespectful, derogatory or offensive adjective Photo: BBC Idiot, in Greek: originally not a disrespectful, derogatory or offensive adjective Photo: BBC
He is politically illiterate.
He also does not take part in political events.
Don’t you know the cost of living?
the price of beans, fish,
Flour, rent, shoes
depend on political decisions.”
This politically illiterate character in the poem attributed to the German playwright Bertolt Brecht is, in other words, an idiot in the almost original sense.
The word “idiot” comes from the Greek ἰδιώτης idiṓtēs and was not originally a disrespectful, derogatory or offensive adjective.
It also had no bearing on the intelligence of the person it was referring to.
This meant an ordinary citizen, as opposed to a scholar or someone who acted on behalf of the state or held public office.
However, because the Greeks placed great value on citizen participation and realized that democracy would collapse without it, all citizens were expected to be interested in and familiar with public affairs. In other words, you shouldn’t be idiots.
Remaining on the margins of public life was a sign of ignorance, lack of education, misinformation and neglect of civic duties.
According to Pericles, the great statesman of Athens, anyone who did not take part in political debates was considered “not without ambition, but as absolutely useless”.
In this context, the term idiṓtēs acquired a negative connotation over time and became a term of disapproval and contempt.
Just having a private life didn’t mean being fully human.
“When a man’s behavior and speech ceased to be political, he became an idiot: selfcentered, indifferent to the needs of others, intrinsically irrelevant,” explains Christopher Berry in his book “The Idea of a Democratic Community.” .
And this kind of idiocy was perhaps more serious than that which resulted from the incipient metamorphosis that was to make the word what it is today, according to the definition in Portuguese, for example from the Michaelmas Dictionary:
1 Speaks of or indicates a lack of intelligence, judgment or common sense; stupid, stupid, so much, so much, fool, joke.
2 One speaks of a person who sees himself as superior to others; arrogant, presumptuous.
3 It is said about what is stupid or naive.
2 of 4 In ancient Greece, participation in politics was considered fundamental Photo: GETTY IMAGES In ancient Greece, participation in politics was considered fundamental Photo: GETTY IMAGES
After becoming a derogatory term for those who refused to participate in politics, it began to define someone as ignorant, rude and uneducated.
With this interpretation it entered Latin in the 3rd century and from there into other languages.
Although the political meaning survived for some time as the culture and traditions of Ancient Greece fell into decline, it was replaced by a new meaning.
Soon another fact further reinforced the current significance.
At the beginning of the 20th century, French psychologists Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon developed the first modern intelligence test, which calculated IQ based on children’s ability to perform tasks such as pointing their nose and counting coins.
Psychologists were so excited by the scientific nature of the tests that they developed classification systems.
Anyone with an IQ over 70 was considered “normal,” while anyone over 130 was considered “gifted.”
To deal with people with an IQ below 70, they invented a nomenclature.
An adult with a mental age of less than three years was labeled an “idiot”; between 3 and 7 for “idiot”; and between 7 and 10 “imbecile”.
“Idiot” then became a technical term used in legal and psychiatric contexts.
The use of this word, as was the case with the Latin word “idiot”, to describe the degree of mental disability meant that it was also ultimately an insult referring to the intellectual gifts of the offended.
In some cultures, like “idiot,” the term “idiot” stopped being used in medicine a few decades later because it was considered offensive.
However, in Spanish, idiocy or idiocia continues to appear in the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) as a term for a type of mental disability:
1. f. Medical disorder characterized by a very serious lack of mental abilities that is congenital or acquired in early life.
Therefore, according to Michaelis in Portuguese, an idiot also means:
4 MED Said of a person suffering from idiocy
3 of 4 The Idiot by Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky was Prince Myshkin, and he was so called because he was humble, honest, and kind in a society of fraudsters and false conspirators. (Drawing and handwritten text by Dostoyevsky) Photo: BBC “The Idiot” by Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky was Prince Myshkin, so called because of his humility, honesty and kindness in a society of counterfeiters and false conspirators. (Drawing and handwritten text by Dostoyevsky) — Photo: BBC
Since the 19th century, there have been thinkers who advocated using the word more broadly but restoring its original meaning.
One of them is Walter C. Parker, professor emeritus at the University of Washington, for whom this ancient etymology can be a valuable tool for a contemporary understanding of democracy and citizenship.
Parker, who is committed to civic education, told BBC News Mundo that his goal is to help individuals transition from the private world of family and kinship to the public world of government, a crucial transition because “in liberal In democracies it is the people who govern.”
“In this sense we can go back to Aristotle two thousand years ago, who I usually quote when I write about idiocy. For him, an idiot is someone who only cares about his private life, someone who takes no initiative in politics.”
“They are immature people with limited development who may have a social life, but not a public life.”
“So there is a private life, a social life and a public life, and to be a purposedriven person and to be successful, you need all three.”
But how can we distinguish between the social and the public?
For Parker, historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt was the best person to think about it since Aristotle.
“It basically means that we can all have a social life with our friends and family, on social networks, at work, at play without necessarily having a public life.”
“A public life is a political life.”
“The ideal of liberal democracy is that we, the people, participate, form the government and create the rules by which we live together without separation and seek to defend ourselves against the kind of public life we do not want. “
“But the idiot refuses all of this. “He simply buries himself in his personal and social life, risking us being ruled by those we least want,” warned the Athenian philosopher Plato in “The Republic.”
That’s why Parker wants to restore the original meaning of the term.
“Because it helps us talk about what it means to develop a political voice,” he says.
“We can’t be idiots.”
4 of 4 It is crucial to express and listen to political opinions, emphasize experts Photo: GETTY IMAGES It is crucial to express and listen to political opinions, emphasize experts Photo: GETTY IMAGES
“It all starts at school,” Parker says.
“In teaching, we need to encourage debate on controversial public issues with other people whose opinions may or may not be similar. Does not matter.”
“Whether you like someone’s opinion or not is important in social life, but not in public life, where we have to interact with other people, build relationships, talk and listen to them, regardless of whether they agree. “
“The aim of political education is to strengthen liberal democracy, which is currently in danger worldwide, including in the USA, as we have seen with Trumpism,” says the expert.
This exchange of opinions, so important in recent decades, often takes place on social networks, which serve as a space for discussions but can also serve as a sounding board for lies and information that destroy democratic society.
“There is always a danger that the idiot will bring his idiocy out into the open, to use the terms we use in the context we are talking about,” Parker explains.
But another “terrible thing,” the academic complains, is indifference.
It is documented that the new (and not so new) generations have no interest in current events.
Despite living in a world where more people than ever have the ability to access information, they choose not to pay attention. They just don’t care.
“In fact, we are getting more and more research showing that young people lead active private and social lives, but not public lives.”
“And that is a very dangerous breeding ground for demagoguery,” he explains.
Well: The increase in public life does not come at the expense of the other two areas, explains Parker.
“The purpose of reusing the term idiocy is in no way to deny or dismiss the importance of private or social life, which is so crucial to our flourishing as human beings.”
“It’s where our family, our friends and our work live.”
“But the public persona is, so to speak, the missing link that allows us to live together in society without our differences remaining intact.”
In this public life, he emphasizes, we learn to deal with strangers with different ideologies in different cultures.
“The goal is to develop a modus vivendi, from Latin, a way of life that allows us to succeed together without killing each other.”
“We must cultivate the public self, and to achieve that we cannot be idiots.”