There is a new quality of idiocy today. While the old idiot derived knowledge from isolation
the new idiot refuses all understanding of the world. A figure of systematic incompetence the
new idiot is impacting global culture and politics alike giving rise to surprising often
absurd competences. Yesterday's fake news or post-truths can be read today as evidence of an
ongoing transformation of self-politics in which the idiotic impulse is redefining our
experience of the world. Despite talk of global awareness the isolated self of the many is all
the more effective. It brings about a culture of happy singletons strolling towards a black
hole that has become their substitute for society. Zoran Terzic's wide-ranging essay takes up
the figure of the idiot and follows its numerous appearances throughout intellectual history in
an examination of the art of the idiotic that both reflects and transcends the freneticism of
the present.
