The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
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The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity? Come on, Carlo Cipolla, don't be giving ambitious idiots any more ideas! How about a book called The Basic Laws of Human Intelligence & Rationality instead?
Oh, you dudes don't think Cipolla's book is a how-to? Well, here's the first line in the blurb for The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity: "An economist explains five laws that confirm our worst fears: stupid people can and do rule the world." Sure, the idea is that smart people will read his words, and learn to spot ignorance and ineptitude, thus preventing the dum-dums from rising to power. The problem?
Stupid people like other stupid people. They make sense to them. What doesn't make sense to them? The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. And #1 in those laws, according to Cipolla, is "Everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals among us." In other words, there's a lot of them. And they're going to keep supporting one another, lifting each other up, reproducing to keep their numbers strong. The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity is just Idiocracy translated into academic writing!
Plus, how do you know if you're stupid or not? Does simply "identifying" someone else as stupid make you smart? Or perhaps does...reading The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, agreeing with it, and proselytizing it make you smart? I'm not sure.
Seems like a smart way to sell some books though.
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