Why do otherwise intelligent people do dumb stuff?

I've had a recent experience with adult "tantrums"--not the noisy, throw things, yelling kind, but the immature attitude kind. The "if you don't play my way, I'm taking my toys and going home" kind. The "I quit" kind. The "everybody is wrong but me" kind. It isn't flattering for the person exhibiting this kind of attitude and behavior. It's a vindictive, mean-spirited type of behavior and who would want to be pegged vindictive or mean-spirited on purpose? No one falling into the "normal" range of personalities.

I love the saying, "Wherever you go there you are." People who exhibit the petty and immature attitude and resulting behavior think their problems can always be traced to someone else's behavior, words or acts, but this is just not true. The measure of who any of is, is based upon how we react or act when things don't go our way, when a situation turns negative or is disappointing. Do we "quit" and blame others? Do we refuse to function? Or do we rise above it all and make a bad situation better rather than making a bad situation worse? I'll take the former every time. Life isn't fair. Bad things happen to good people. People aren't perfect. You know all these sayings are true. Most of us learn this at a fairly early age. Those who haven't learned it or refuse to accept it and pose as adults, are just remedial students of life, emotionally mental midgets and they create their own environment of misery. They find it easier to offload everything negative that happens to them onto someone or something else--a sure sign of immaturity because human beings move away from the ego-centricity of childhood into adulthood by accepting what happens and making the best of it if it's a negative. And, for those who do mature, it is painful to spend time with an emotional "toddler". The "toddler" in his or her self-centered view of the world can't understand why people barely tolerate him or her and why they choose to spend their time with others. Who wants to be a babysitter and change emotional messy diapers forever?