A few nights ago, hubs and I decided to discuss about stupidity as a pre-slumber conversation. Hubs had recently just read an essay called “The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity” by an economist named Carlo M. Cipolla. It was published in 1976 and I wonder why it took us this long to finally learn about it.
All I can say is, wow, what a treat!
Never had I read something so illuminating and thought-provoking, helping me to put to rest most of my frustrations with the humankind (and sometimes loved ones).
According to Cipolla, there are 4 laws regarding stupidity and they are:
• Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
Right, how many times have we complained about stupid people and then, bam! More stupid people.
Well, for a quick case, just check Facebook – have you counted the number of people getting shocked at what politicians say or do…again and again and again? This simply goes to show that despite knowing and acknowledging that there are stupid politicians, people never failed to be surprised by more stupid politicians! It’s because we have always been underestimating the amount of stupidity.
• The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
Yeap, no matter whether a person is kind, sweet, funny, witty, has clever parents etc….if they’re stupid, they’re stupid. None of the other traits affect one’s stupidity. Perhaps the other characteristics might make you notice it more or less but you want the quickest ways to find out if one is stupid? Give them Facebook.
• A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
Now this is my favourite point, because it’s explains stupidity so fluidly and so precisely. Stupidity – people who cause losses to other people while not gaining anything themselves and possibly also causing losses to themselves. People washing cars during water rationing, hello? Whether it’s money, time, energy or loveeeeeeee. Baybeh, ask yourself…are you stupid?
I admit, this particular point has got me to think about my own stupidity and I must say I am stupid to a degree. I get frustrated with stupid people, which is causing loss of energy to myself and that in itself is stupid.
So from now on, I want to be non-stupid.
• Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
Yeap, stay the eff away. But what if the stupid people are your family? What if they suck the life, happiness and joy out of your life? How can you stop dealing and associating with people that are both stupid and family? I have come to terms with that and yes, you can choose friends AND choose family.
My belief is that people that have any semblance of self-awareness will come to realise that they are behaving stupidly and are causing losses to themselves and other people. But if even with such knowledge that they continue the rampage of stupidity….then it’s time to cut them out till they’ve sorted their own shit out.
So are you stupid or non-stupid? Can you tell?
Kimberly,
An interesting disussion point. Stupid, or whats makes an idea or person appear stupid often if a matter of opinion. You mentioned this: “A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.”
That might be true and untrue. Consider the Julina Assange,editor-in-chief of the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, which he co-founded in 2006 after an earlier career in hacking and programming. WikiLeaks achieved particular prominence in 2010 when it published U.S. military and diplomatic documents leaked by Chelsea Manning.
Mr. Assanges leaks caused harm and danger for thousands. Yet many admire and came to defend this man. Was his action stupid, misguided or an act of courage, even if misguided?
I will be daring and say, few of us humans go through an entire life without doing a few really studid acts, either verbally, or taking a dare that ends up embarrassing ourself or another, think of all the young women taking naked, topless and risque selfies. Some of those risque photos will cause problems for some young women as they seek to advance on a career path. Other will have such pictures discovered by a potential suitor who will find such photos reason to end a relationship.
I believe, without being able to provide you and your readers proof, that most acts of stupidity are infrequent and that all of us will fall into such laspes of good judgement.
When we are young, we tend to act on dares and wims of fanciful thought, some try to act out a movie or TV scene, works in the movie, but in real life most turn out not so great.
In people that appear to have a unique ability to move from one stupid act to another, I would suggest looking deeper into that persons background. What most of us call common sense appears to actually be learned behaviours. Children coming from parents with little common sense will not grow up with more, and likely will have less sense than thier parents since they had no role model to learn common sense from.
I do trust that you and Gareth will grow with your child, together as a family, and both or you will impart to your child more common sense than many children will know.
Be healthy mom!
Hi David,
Thanks for your input. I do think the definition is what it is, with no grey areas like in Julian Assanges’ case. He did what he did for the greater good & pursuit of transparency. And truly, I believe everyone is “stupid” to a certain degree, we’ve all done something at one point that has caused losses to both ourselves and other people without benefit for anyone at all. People who keep doing the same thing despite being proven again and again it doesn’t work and hoping for a different outcome, for example.
The original essay is far more insightful than what I’ve haphazardly summarised here :)
Kimberly,
“People who keep doing the same thing despite being proven again and again it doesn’t work and hoping for a different outcome, for example. ”
You have a good point above. I proved that when I was young, foolish and quite the idiot. For years I had no luck with women, no girl friends no dates.
Spent far to many evenings and weekends alone. Of course lacking most social graces, not liking who I was or how I looked was picked up by any women with ease. The result was I avoided like a contagious disease.
In a word, I was acting stupid, very stupid. It tool quite a few years to grow out of that disatorous phase.
However from time to time I have a talent for discovering new and unique ways to prove stupid. What an unfortunate talent if I dare call it that.
Kimberly,
I happened upon an article people hurt by Julian Assange.
The article points out that not everything Assange did was for the greater good.
In fact many were hurt, one business closed, and customers of that business were adversely affected.
“…Julian Assanges’ case. He did what he did for the greater good & pursuit of transparency.”
After Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks from last year, rumors circulated that Snowden used Lavabit, which at the time was a hugely popular secure email service. Soon after that, Lavabit founder Ladar Levison wrote that he was forced to decide between being “complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit.” He decided to shut Lavabit down, and he added ominously, “I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot.”
More at: https://bgr.com/2014/05/21/why-did-lavabit-shut-down/
This is perhaps beyond the scope of being stupid. What motivated Julian Assange to believe releasing classified data without reviewing such data will most likely never be completly known.
Lavabit provided a legal service. Mr. Assange took advantage of that business for nefarious reasons.
I don’t think anyone could judge for themselves whether they are stupid or non-stupid. I believe no one wants to be stupid so if they know they are doing stupid things they would stop doing the stupid things and thus be non-stupid. For those who continue to do stupid things it is because to them the things that they are doing are not stupid. Why wash car during water rationing? They don’t believe that there is a water shortage.
stupid dunno stupid, hehe.
Hehe indeed. :D