# stubbornly ill-considered knowitalls sick: borderline almost literally too stupid to live - near physically unable to listen to simple rational logic or just another view from those whose views should count 'sicks' don't appear to have the good sense they were born with; once they get a (too-often bafflingly wrong-headed) notion in ir pea-brained minds they often cannot change track or divert from ir one-way course by a single dim degree a barely-cognitive torpedo of astoundingly unreal bizarre selfish not-quite ignorance and self-interest bordering on parody; one looks on in wonder saying 'surely nobody is *that* incapable of listening to prudent sound judgement and everyday levelheadedness' - but no one can and will shout one may scream plead get angry - point out the obvious - get frustrated to the point of total brain freeze; none of it will do any good if / since they've already decided - like they're almost pathologically afraid of being wrong bashing one's hyper-frustrated burning skull against an iron wall of infinite dimensions would be more useful than trying to convince such worryingly-witless wonders of something small and more reasonable; one could speak plain truths to the sentient moss on a rock in an abandoned welsh mining pit and this would be a better use of one's time energy and emotional commitment the decision to not-engage at all can require an iron will - a diametrically cancelling will 'equal' in opposition to the degree of ir own wilful deafness (these are not in fact equal; stubborn wrong-headedness and simple wisdom are not equal and to suggest so is a false equivalence) despite the complaints one will invariably receive it's not about gloating or saying 'i told you so' but merely of clearly realising ir profound lack of imaginative compassion and emotional intelligence a lack of sensitivity - the simple common respect for the (informed) opinion of others and the pathetically obvious fact that 'sicks' don't and can't know everything (and should therefore at the least be cautious in ir actions and assumptions) if there were ever better and simple golden advice as 'not throwing pearls before swine' you've yet to hear it not that one is even trying to remotely convey anything particularly complex subtle or philosophically abstract but to simply get across a possibly better more considered viewpoint attentive foresight or vigilant wisdom - a considerate circumspection born of patient halting sensitivity and more finely-discriminating perspicacious judiciousness researcher henry swanson: know what i'm sayin' there's little in the vast domain of 'republic of bob' more uselessly challenging malignantly futile impotently ineffective inconsequentially unproductive or vainly purposeless - basically less worthy of attempting - then trying to inform a dullard of something they simply do not want to hear - who by all evidence and appearances just do not seem capable of listening to you will fall flat at the first giant intensely annoying hurdle - which is ir thumb-dumb brain; your plain knight's humble quest to convey any single simple truth or tiny morsel of kind advice to such a creature will be unavailing and fruitless and in ir mentally intractable mullish recalcitrant presence you'll quickly feel barren and empty - emotionally drained since they invariably think they know better than anyone else on rare planet earth why would they need to listen to a mere scientist like oneself (not that you're chopped liver - some random schmuck on the street as you actively care about them) yet see how you get it thrown back in your face listening is a vital skill for modem researchers - it is the basis of the big scientific method and approach yet if a fellow traveller is both unwilling and unable to be quietly attentive for ten utterly miserable earth minutes and listen to the good common sense of fellow researchers - then what there's often little a person can do with creatures just too damn stubborn unyielding inflexible and perversely single-minded to consider anything other than whatever ill-considered small-brained bs they imagine they already know such obdurate immovable stiff-necked bottle-nosed relentlessly rigid unimpressible bull-headed shortsightedness can hurt one's feelings - particular if one thinks the world of the conceptually deaf person in question and would do anything to see them healthy happy and safe - expressing an ability for compassionate approachable and unbiased reconsideration of whatever utter small-potatoes non-sense they're too-often ready to die on a lonely hill for to display such a ready instant reactionary knee-jerking intolerance of any other suggestions or actions other than the one first chosen or immediately favoured indicates an acute unwillingness to evolve - to correct one's mistakes sicks often do not express a 'susceptibility to change' and are almost completely stuck in old ways; new or different ideas life throws at them are often dismissed outright - interpreted or filtered by set-in-stone assumptions and dubious notions clogging up the brain creative novelty interesting and relevant strangeness or fresh surprising unfamiliar concepts notions or events seem to be willingly shut out and blocked out in favour of fossilised and time-worn bioelectrical signals stagnating in scientific brain cells long overdue for a refreshing update; heaven-forbid one try something new or at the least less difficult more direct less grinding (simple suggestions and solutions less convoluted entangled and laughably complicated) the disturbingly incurious are terrified of being wrong because that might indicate not everything in one's self-isolating little bubble universe is under control - andor remotely needs to be one often thinks - if only they'd pull that stick of out of ir uptight arts chill the heck out take it a little easy (say a single atom) and generally just live a little - then there might be 1% chance of then acting less of frightful pain or tiresome bore (please note it won't help to point this out to them) such overly defensive interrupting and instant dismissal of the considered words of others do nothing to protect one and makes every situation no matter how trivial or more easily resolved worse then necessary; everything becomes a worry and a hurdle instead of a mere bump in the road to easy street yet as the mighty rollins says: even when it's a problem it's only a problem (the upshot being zip it duckhead - stop moaning and just get the flock on with it because nobody cares about your unceasingly worrisome anal pea-counting bs; that shit simply don't matter) having to listening to them (as one unfortunately has to because they seem to love ir own inner voice) is always a chore; apparently you're always wrong and ir single lead-dumb thought-lump is inherently better whatever pathetic tissue-thin-issue they're currently whizzing and moaning about is almost invariably (somehow) of world-shattering importance and must under any circumstances be immediately resolved - by ir method and hugely circumscribed mental conception alone if one doesn't have any respect for the opinions of others - fine; don't listen go right ahead like one was going to anyway the intellectually hard-of-hearing - how supremely tiresome and exhausting; one regularly feels worn out by trying to make sicks them see common sense - now matter how small the sense in current question happens to be as is commonly and correctly stated one should avoid wrestling in the thick grey mud of stubborn know-it-all-ness exuded by the closed-minded; one will only get muddy and they'll only drag you deeper into ir (highly experienced) existential flock-pie of ill-consideration; any onlookers will also think the both of you actively enjoy the experience so the question becomes why just stop trying to persuade but simply 'non contend'; why not simply engage in 'non-doing' as ancient chinese wisdom has it; 'neither resist or insist' like in tai chi chuan fa this seems the way - without effort - which must be why they call it 'tao' // republic of bob