Incoherent Ramblings: Public Displays of Ignorance

Today let’s talk about public displays of ignorance or as I call it PDI. We all know what PDI is because we’ve all experienced it. Heck, we’ve all participated in it, too, though I’m sure a lot of people won’t admit to it. Or maybe they will. I don’t know. I’m just a guy. What do I know, right? Anyway, where were we? Oh right, PDI. If you just arrived on planet Earth or lived under a rock that didn’t have cable and or an internet connection, a PDI is a display of ignorance,  stupidity, obliviousness or lack of tact that is public. This includes but is not limited to: shouting at people you know from across long distances when a phone call would suffice,  shouting random things at no one  in particular, and shouting at random people things that those people probably won’t understand. Note that PDIs usually involve shouting, though realistically,  they can be anything.

PDIs have been around for as long as people have been around. I like to imagine that a lot of history’s most famous figures were practitioners of PDI. As a matter of fact, that’s probably where the whole idea of political and philosophical debate originated from: people yelling random, somewhat deep or relevant things at each other from across the forum. Now, of course, in the case of debate, it became much more focused and in my opinion less fun, but I think you get what I’m talking about.

Personally, I love PDI’s. They brighten up my day and are, in my opinion, a great source of variety for what can be a monotonous and dry place like Frostburg. (ah light bashing of FSU, how I love you).  Let me give you an example of PDI.

“I’ve got oranges in my mouth, get at me (expletive for a female dog)!!”.

I heard this one in my residence hall. Out of all the PDI that I’ve seen at Frostburg State University this is my favorite. The sheer absurdity of the idea that just because some guy is eating oranges that someone should talk to him is amazing to me.

Now then, some people may find PDI’s annoying. They might say “Hey Ian, I don’t want people yelling random things at me or asking me about things that are quite obviously inside jokes. It’s very annoying and I just don’t want to deal with it god damnit!”  Well to those people I say, why worry about it? You can’t control it and honestly when you get “accosted” by people in the street it can be really fun to just go with it and join the shenanigans. Who knows you might make some friends. Though you probably shouldn’t do that because if you get friends that are actually entertaining then you won’t have any reason to read my column, you’re current and only source of semi good quality humor.

Basically the gist of this topic is “PDI’s exist, I think they’re funny, and if you don’t, then you probably should give it a second, deeper look.”

If you don’t know what just happened, don’t worry. Neither do I.