Idiot

From Cassiopedia

Idiot:

 according to Webster:
 

Image:Http://www.affichescinema.com/insc i/idiot.jpgMain

   Entry: idiot  
   Pronunciation: 'i-dE-&t 
   Function: noun 
   Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French ydiote, from Latin idiota ignorant 
   person, from Greek idiOtEs one in a private station, layman, ignorant person, 
   from idios one's own, private; akin to Latin suus one's own -- more at SUICIDE 
   1 usually offensive : a person affected with idiocy 
   2 : a foolish or stupid person

Fyodor Dostoevsky 
 wrote the famous novel "The Idiot"

"The basis of the novel is that Myshkin is not bright, has not had much

   education, and traverses society with a mentality of simplistic innocence. 
   When speaking his opinion, he struggles to articulate himself with Charlie 
   Brown-like stammering and wishy-washiness. For this reason, people consider 
   him an idiot, but he is a good, honest, sympathetic, and gracious person."
 

Source: Literature Network>Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Idiot

But the term "idiot" has also its esoteric meaning set by Gurdjieff

"Gurdjieff sits on the terrace of the Cafe Henri IV drinking coffee

   and cognac and working on a translation of All and Everything when the writer 
   Thornton Wilder is introduced to him. Gurdjieff grunts and motions him to 
   sit down and have a coffee and cognac. Asking Wilder a number of questions, 
   he laughs inordinately at every reply. 
 
Wilder is not put off. He sees in Gurdjieff's face someone who is "at once 
   sly and jovial, arrogant and clownish." He looked, says Wilder, "like a very 
   intelligent Armenian rug-dealer." 
 
Gurdjieff orders more coffee and cognac and tells Wilder, "In the world, 
   everybody idiot. Twenty-one kinds of idiot: simple idiot, ambitious idiot, 
   compassionate idiot, objective idiot, subjective idiot-everybody one kind 
   of idiot." 
 

Wilder tells him he thinks he is a subjective idiot.

"Non," answers Gurdjieff, laughing uproariously. "Il ne faut pas aller trop 
   vite. Il faut chercher.-Mais vous etes idiot type vingt: vous etes idiot sans 
   espoir!" (No. One mustn't go too fast. One must search.-But you are idiot 
   type twenty: you are idiot without hope.). 
 
Wilder is not offended and Gurdjieff asks him to come to dinner at the Prieure. 
   Says Wilder: "I had begun to like him, and his eyes rested on me affectionately." 
 
 
Gurdjieff holds his glass toward Wilder and says-barely able to speak for 
   laughter: "I idiot, too. Everybody idiot. I idiot vingt-et-un (twentyone). 
   I"--Gurdjieff holds his forefinger emphatically pointed skyward -- "I the 
   unique idiot." And he breaks into convulsions of laughter."
 

Source: William Patrick Patterson, "Struggle of the Magicians",

   p. 153-154
 

See also Nondual Perspectives and Idiots

See also The Fool, Sheep