The busiest people harbor the greatest weariness, their restlessness is weakness – they no longer have the capacity for waiting and idleness.” Nietzsche With Nietzsche, as with any great contrarian, we find quotes that point us towards a truth that is at once counter-intuitive and provocative. Of course, when asked to imagine what it would … Read more
Mimetic Theory Where do man’s desires come from? Apart from the basic desire to survive (food, shelter, rest), what motivates people? Where did the desire for status, fame, honor, legacy, pride, vanity come from? One thinker who conceived of a simple yet brilliant answer to this question was Rene Girard, a literary theorist who spent … Read more
The Precautionary Principle is a philosophical and legal approach to dealing with innovations that have the potential for causing harm when sufficient scientific knowledge on the subject is lacking. The technological and economic progress that began with the industrial revolution created an insatiable demand for natural resources. These natural resources, their extraction, and their conversion into … Read more
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity by Cipolla is a short book is a funny, clever, and simple description of the phenomenon of stupidity. In his book, Italian sociologist Mario Cipolla argues that there is no such thing as a stupid person – and that even the most powerful in society can be stupid. But … Read more
Law 5: A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person. The corollary of the Law is that ‘A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit.’ Carlo Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity The perfect bandit incurs a plus on his account equivalent to the minus caused to the other person. Society … Read more
The helpless, intelligent, and the bandits all underestimate the danger posed by stupid people. 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 infallibly turns out to be a … Read more
Stupid people are dangerous because reasonable people can’t predict unreasonable behavior. An intelligent person can understand the logic of a bandit, because the latter is at least rational. The bandit wants personal benefit, and since he cannot think of win-win situation, he will harm others. But, if you are rational, you can foresee the actions … Read more
The extent to which the stupid person is dangerous depends on two things, the genetic factor (the inheritance of exceptional doses of the gene of stupidity), and the position of power in society. Among bureaucrats, generals, politicians and heads of state one has little difficulty in finding clear examples of basically stupid individuals whose damaging … Read more
Human beings fall into four basic categories: the helpless, the intelligent, the bandit and the stupid. 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 Carlo Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity The … Read more
There are many types of bandits as there are many types of stupid people. The more intelligent kind of bandit is the one who’s behavior yields to them more profits when compared to the losses caused to other people. But these types of bandits are not numerous. Most bandits yield gains that are inferior to … Read more