ETIMOLOGY
The word Idiot originates from the Greek noun ἰδιώτης idiōtēs meaning an individual/private person/ones own. The adjective idios means ones own/private. The original meaning of the word idiot did not have a negative connotation related to intelligence but instead to public interest. It was centuries later when the word was related to concepts such as imbecile and moron and strictly as medicinal term before becoming one of the widely used insulting and descriptive concepts in everyday speech.
THE ORIGINAL MEANING
To understand the precise original meaning of the word idiot it is important to learn more about the context in which the term was born. As we should already know, the ancient Greeks were founders of democracy. The original type of democracy was not parliamentary but direct democracy meaning that every citizen was potentially political decision maker. Although the ‘every citizen’ part was only limited to adult men and excluded women and slaves it was still a huge leap in the area of individual freedoms. Ancient Greeks were proud to be democratic and the system they invented served them quite well for a long period of time during which many of their city-states were rapidly progressing economically, culturally and scientifically.
Being able to participate in public affairs was recognized and valued as a great gift. It was also considered very important to be democratically active for that is precisely what made you a citizen. Much like there is a consensus among modern institutions in the fields of democracy and human liberties about the importance of citizen participation it was the same at dawn of its creation. In addition, the process to become a democratic citizen is not an easy task. Therefore Greeks believed that idiots were born and citizens were made through education and experience of being active in debates and politics. Refusing to participate in politics and democracy was considered selfish and ignorant. Idiots were materialists who were focused on private gains while ignoring the importance of their role in public arena.
ARE YOU AN IDIOT?
So it comes to prioritization of key metrics as we can be intelligent by metrics defined with current IQ standards. And they have nothing to do with democracy. It is only if one is unintelligent that he/she deserves to be insulted as idiot without even considering whether one participates in politics. Perhaps IQ tests should include a simple questionnaire about how much time and effort do you put into politics in order to determine the real level of IQ. Perhaps we should become more concerned with democracy than with intelligence since citizens cannot be intelligent while being apathetic about politics. The next time you call someone an idiot consider that you might be referring to yourself.
