A very well-hidden illusion for the ego is the illusion of stupidity.
While stupidity is openly perceptible on every street, in the media,
and among the many leaders of nations, leaving one simply astonished
by the nonsense so many spout, another level exists.
You must remember that the existence of many alternative realities can
represent any version of a person. If your friend is stupid in one reality,
he is clever in another and knows exactly what's going on.
If you see through the disguise of stupidity, then you know that every
stupid person is only pretending to be stupid. The moment you speak
to him, he chooses a stupid aspect of himself and presents it to you.
This isn't much different in the media. The people you recognize as stupid
aren't actually stupid; they're just pretending to be. That's an important
distinction.
On a theater stage, you wouldn't say that the role and the actor are the
same. The actor is just playing a stupid role.
In the Matrix, many people tend to confuse the role a person plays with
the actor playing that role.
When you are aware of your actor, you can finally recognize all the
actors and how they play their roles.
When you throw money into a beggar's hat, you don't do it because you
think he needs it, but also to reward him for the successful role he plays
every day in your city.
If you like someone's performance, throw him a dollar—or a fiver. Because
he played that role just for you. Everything you perceive is a performance,
just for you.
You are the one living in the Matrix and experiencing your world entirely
subjectively. Stupidity, intelligence, poverty, wealth—these are all roles
in the Matrix.
Behind the roles are actors who consciously play them. The illusion of
stupidity is that you don't recognize the actor behind it.
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