Let's Talk About Stupidity
Read here and avoid being a dum-dum
You hate stupidity, and everyone else in the world will say the same thing. No honest person will answer, “Yes stupidity is great,” when asked.
The word stupid is one of our favorites. I wonder how many times it is spoken daily, but I am confident the number is enormous. Without thinking we say, “Well, that was stupid.” Or, it is common to hear, “If it weren’t for that stupid thing, I would have had a great day.” It’s the enemy of efficiency and joy.
Whatever we do not like can be described as stupid. Yet, it is a word reserved for private confines, when we are alone, or among close friends and family. Saying the word publicly must be carefully done. Because stupid carries shame and mockery and can even be discriminatory.
Something so important to us must be brought out into the open and discussed. That is what I want to do: talk intelligently about stupidity.
Professor Carlo Cipolla was a historian who specialized in stupidity. Rather, I mean he was very smart but researched and wrote extensively about being dumb. It seems his work represents the best analysis ever on our subject for today.
Cipolla categorized all people into 4 different categories. Read about them below:
Intelligent: Think of the intelligent as those who help others and themselves. They benefit humanity and great causes. The intelligent ably navigate life, seeing the potential for positive change while investing in achievement.
Bandits: They are not stupid. However, bandits use intelligence to benefit themselves and no one else. This group is the enemy of the good-hearted and helpful. They only enrich themselves at the expense of everyone and everything around them.
Helpless: They are great to others but treat themselves poorly. Bandits seek out the helpless and consistently abuse their good natures. The helpless are not as useful as the intelligent, because they can do nothing to combat the schemers of the world.
Stupid: Describing these unfortunates, Cipolla said they do not help themselves or others. They are ineffective, plus the stupid are like the barnacles of our earthly existence. Cipolla used the word dangerous. In short, stupid people are like a roadblock for all great and minor endeavors.
In addition, Cipolla created “The Five Laws of Stupidity.” In his words only, they are:
Law 1: Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
Law 2: The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
Law 3: 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.
Law 4: 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.
Law 5: A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.
(If you detect a Dunning-Kruger effect going on here, I believe you are right. I do too. But, I have no idea if there is any actual connection.)
According to Cipolla’s classifications of people, there must not be much we can do to de-stupid the world. We have to watch out for them, avoid them when we can, and make allowances and preparations to withstand and “win” at life despite their presence.
Also, it is commonplace that we can misjudge a stupid person as one of the other categories. There are no indications of stupidity except for behavior—according to the professor. Then, I think we need to examine Law 2.
The law means that someone dumb can be rich, famous, and tasked with enormous responsibility. This is scary, and you do not have to be a genius to figure that out, dear reader.
The following, I hope, will cause spontaneous applause at your home, work, or wherever you are reading: politicians and all kinds of world leaders can be stupid despite their status. The “nobodies” of the world then have the same capacity for being doofus-like.
On a similar note, most stupid people cannot properly evaluate their lack of intelligence. Therefore, stupid people with power are the most dangerous type. This state of affairs often produces unlimited cruelty.
Law 4 needs no proof as to its validity. I think this is a truism even if one wants to change “stupid” to unhelpful, callous, or apathetic. However one wants to say it, the good underestimate the bad—in my not-at-all humble opinion.
Dear reader, I bet you have problems with overestimating people. What about instructions, specifically? We are constantly miscommunicating, and that is based largely on the fact some folks do not grasp what we assume that they do.
A project goes in the wrong direction. It might be complex or simple—like how we are getting to the restaurant and when we need to leave. “I have that appointment I must be at, remember, so I need to arrive and then leave by 2:30.”
You might even feel like Captain Obvious, but some stupid person in the crowd did not get the message. You needed to be even more obvious to the point that you fear you are condescending. This is what it means to underestimate the dumb factor.
Loosely based on Cipolla’s formula, I think stupid people reveal themselves most often by “getting in the way.” For example, a not-so-bright individual will park his car somewhere he shouldn’t have. Likely, he was in a rush and failed to consider that, at some point in the future, others in vehicles will come along and suffer because of his thoughtlessness.
The parking lot is now full. Others try to leave. Maybe he is driving one of those giant trucks forced into a space that was created before giant trucks were invented. The truck is angled the wrong way. People cannot maneuver out of their spaces behind him, and he cannot pull out either for fear of hitting the other cars. This is a stupid stalemate.
For Cipolla, stupidity is more of a characteristic and has no relationship to a low score on some test. Although, he believes that the trait can be inherited. Overall, I think his work is the opposite of stupid and is very helpful. Cipolla argues that lack of intelligence is the most fundamental threat to human prosperity and safety.
There are many ways society tries to understand and explain stupidity. Everyone does it. Really, we want to know why someone does some inexplicable thing that is obviously foolish. The smart keep trying to figure it out while the inane keep blundering away, unaware how the collected works of stupidity hinder progress on all fronts.
The essence of Cipolla’s thesis, in my interpretation, is that stupid acts work like minuses to us all; they detract and hold us back. The frequency of unintelligent things that happen corresponds to lowering the quality of life for the whole human race.
Now I want to offer some traits of stupid people, based on opinion, observations, and the complaints from the non-stupid. Also, I want to know what you think of these:
“Characteristics of Stupid People”
Lack of Awareness-This is my favorite idiotic trait, thus it is my least favored one to deal with. My thoughts first led me to wonder if I should separate self-awareness from general awareness. I decided against that. I feel that’s a smart move. One might also call this quality: not appreciating contingencies and how each situation is unique. Every environment, though appearing as much the same, is not.
If one with great awareness reads the room and all the goings-on, knows who is who and how people might react to whatever, and has a firm grasp on right and wrong things to say, then stupid folks don’t do any of that. If life situations were a sport like football, the stupid-stricken run when they should pass and pass when they should run. Also, a stupid guy will bull rush something that requires restraint, and vice-versa.
Not Listening-A very annoying habit, indeed. The less-than-intelligent see no reason to absorb information and analyze it. So, blockheads only want to know just enough of what is said to avoid getting into trouble. At least, that is the best-case scenario.
Sometimes even this is too much of a chore. The intelligent are forced to repeat themselves often and hate doing so. Not listening is a form of disrespect, but the dull-witted usually are not aware of that at all. As in my example of the restaurant, miscommunication is not a rare thing.
Lack of Respect for Knowledge- Dummies hate learning stuff that 1) is not easily usable for superficial purposes or 2) challenges any part of their belief system. Forget learning for the sake of learning. What does not make sense to your average nitwit must surely be somehow wrong.
The stupid routinely dismiss expert testimony. However, if an expert confirms something they prefer to believe, then a simpleton will repeat that information over and over until everyone is sick of it. They see no inconsistency with refusing the existence of evidence they do not value and celebrating research, or opinions, or whatever, that props up some beloved assumption. In short, our not-so-smart brethren will go to great lengths not to think.
Inconsistency- The only consistent feature of the unintelligent is, well, you guessed it. Everything else about them is like a canoe that has been abandoned in the ocean. It drifts in any direction without a trace of design and forethought.
Their actions change as easily as the winds that blow. The intelligent are challenged to hold the stupid to any point of view. This is because there is nothing concrete behind their statements and the things they do. The next day comes along and yesterday is forgotten. When someone expects a twit to confirm something already expressed, that someone is often left exasperated.
I could keep going, but that is enough. We have a good character profile of the standard numbskull.
For even more reading, you can consult Matthijs van Boxsel who is another academic expert on stupidity. I know less about him, but it seems he has a good sense of humor. He argues that everyone is stupid to some degree and intelligence comes from trying to overcome our latent vapidity.
I agree that everyone gets stupid from time to time. We do things that we cannot believe, and usually that is because of fatigue. No one can be super-aware constantly without serious mental health problems. I know this, because I tried it.
Don’t let knuckleheaded dolts infringe on too much of your energy. Enough is enough. Sometimes, we the intelligent must get away from ninny-headed morons. Oh yeah, and it is good to laugh at yourself too.
Cipolla, Carlo M. The basic laws of human stupidity. London: W.H. Allen, 2019.
Van Boxsel, Matthijs. The Encyclopedia of Stupidity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2015.
Oh, and worthy of a restock.
Strawbridge, that is an excellent piece you have written. Very thought-provoking. I will get my own copy of Dr.Cipolla's book. One reason I need to read it for myself is that I need to know he distinguishes between stupidity and dumb. There are many people that, after I have a ten or fifteen minute encounter, I want my time back. Bravo and thank you for your summary.