Herostratus

30/10/2021 Nilson Lattari

Probably, you have never heard this name. Of course, the scholars of the Greek culture know it. Curious people know it as well. After all, not everyone is an idiot who doesn’t know anything. But, what is the connection between us, Herostratus and idiots? That’s the question.
Herostratus was a Greece incendiary that fired up one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – The Temple of Artemis. A big building, with more than a hundred columns of pure marble and the statue of Artemis, the goddess of births, made of wood included the furniture of the temple made of the same material.
Herostratus, the idiot, had the brilliant idea to put fire on the temple, during the absence of the goddess who was taking care of the Alexander’s birth, the Great. But, this is a legend. At the end, Herostratus, the idiot, our hero or the hero for one of us at least, did a perfect idiocy.
When the Greek authorities asked him why he did that, why he destroyed one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, Herostratus, the idiot, answered them that he wanted to pass to the future and his name was registered in the History of humanity.
After that idiocy, the Greek authorities decided that Herostratus was erased from the books’ records and nobody knew anything about him. Why do we know about that? Maybe, someone decided to break this recommendation because he was an idiot like him or he decided that the recommendation was idiot as well. Then, this guy decided to renew the memories of an idiot or he decided to do this to warn us about the existence of idiots since the ancient world.
In fact, we could deduce that idiots always existed, proved by the Greece people. And the existence of people that have courage to be like him. If there was a social media of that age we could imagine that society, in panic, seeing Herostratus, the idiot, taking a selfie and the temple burning on background and Artemis with the hands on her head in front of that demonstration of idiocy.
I think about the world, nowadays, where we imagine how many idiots make idiocy or speak about idiocy only to get likes and how they try to make fame to show their abilities to the world. I fancy celebrities taking off their clothes to make idiocy, but in this case he or she are responsible to erase their stories. Or people who decide to take selfies of their butts or look for dangerous places to drop down on the ground and die because of this. Or people hung on top of buildings looking for fame with the gravity waiting for opportunities. In short, people do stupid and weird things to show up to followers like them.
The existence of idiots is possible, how this idiot proved this at that age. The danger is among their followers. It’s probable the existence of idiot situations and people that speak about. Societies absorb them. Societies don’t require intellectuals all the time. At the end, we see graduate people with certificates who make stupid comments and follow stupid orders and characters as well. They follow them by interests or because they are, simply, stupid people looking for a brave idiot to represent them. A scholar brought back an idiot with double intention: to show that idiocy overcomes its age or to try to warn us about what an idiot could do to become a famous person.
And where are you and us? If we don’t feel like an idiot, we will know the answer.