Posted on 12/08/2020 12:53:26 PM PST by hank ernade
Cipolla gave a work of beautiful clarity in his essay on the phenomenon of stupidity and its effects on human survival. These are Cipolla's five fundamental laws of stupidity:
1. Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
2. The probability that a certain person (will) be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
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.
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.
5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.
Corollary: a stupid person is more dangerous than a pillager.
Further expanding the basic principles of the 5 Laws was a study from Eötvös Loránd University that determined,
1. Ignorance or overconfidence. It would be the highest degree of stupidity and appears in people who take risks of any kind, although they lack the skills or knowledge necessary to face them.
2. Lack of control. It’s a medium degree of stupidity that corresponds to impulsive people, who lack self-control and act letting themselves be carried away by the first impulse.
3. Distraction. It would be the slightest degree of stupidity, which manifests itself in those who fail to achieve something because they don’t pay attention or don’t allocate sufficient resources, struggling uselessly.
Consider point 2 in context of Never Trumpers and those motivated by hatred of Trump.
The value of Cipolla's work is in understanding movements that rely on the uneducated and lower stratas of a society to attain their aims, and why gains achieved using such people usually come to a bad end.
Think about societies that foster large numbers of dependent people.
Like Socialism
The most dangerous combination is stupid people who also believe they are on a “mission” to save “something”. This would include Green Party radicals and Scientologists. Not only are they dangerous but they are highly motivated to leverage their stupidity.
My personal laws for survival in such a world are:
1. Avoid sociopaths and eliminate them from your life if at all possible.
2. Assume everyone else is a stupid person until they convince you they aren’t.
3. Because someone is not stupid in one case does not mean they aren’t stupid in other cases.
4. Stupidity is contagious so strive every day to inoculate your mind with truth and skepticism about everything
5. If “everybody” knows something is right it probably isn’t
Corollary to the Corollary and hence the cycle of farce followed by farce followed by farce followed by tragedy, sometimes called the 'history of man': As men act as and in the name of a group, group IQ detaches entirely from the sum of the individual IQs and disappears, while sociopathy exactly reproduces the IQ curve inversely. The eventual suffering of both those in the group and outside the group matches the sociopathy curve, although in the out-group individuals the suffering is phased earlier along x where x = time.
Corollary to the corollary to the corollary: Grouping is cyclic.
“Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the mental clarity and strength of nerve necessary for difficult decisions.”
Haha, I’m definitely in the clever and lazy category. Doing a job well is satisfying, but it is much more satisfying to find a way to avoid doing a job that I don’t want to do in the first place.
Candidates for the Cipolla Stupid Prize
Carthaginians
Who sacrificed their firstborn by fire to their gods.
In each generation the most vigorous progeny were killed, leading to a gradual decline in the genetic quality of Carthaginians.
In fact the Carthags were such greedy unprincipled crazies that the Romans scoured them from existence and salted their ruins so nothing would grow there.
“I’m definitely in the clever and lazy category.”
The fruits of laziness are your favorite snack and beverage served to you.
Stupid is actually contagious.
A study found that people confined with low IQ inmates in institutions tended to test higher IQ after being removed from those environments.
Actually no. Half are below median.
I certainly see the university swarm in there.
Hi.
Which is more abundant in the universe, hydrogen or stupidity?
5.56mm
Ill use the man on the street or beach segment most recently Jesse waters of Fox used often where he goes on the beach and asks questions and shows pictures to average adults AND THEY ARE IDIOTS COMPLETE IDIOTS
Ping
Some years ago a Man on the Street type filmed his asking people to sign his petition to ban DIHYDROGEN OXIDE.
Hazards of dihydrogen oxide are-
1. so corrosive it dissolves steel
2. is lethal in large amounts
3. a chemical used to torture people
4. carries disease agents
5. chemical symbol H2O
Got a ton of dummies to sign the petition.
Another stupid Vanity heheh
So which are you?
H1 - helpless but halfway intelligent (average Joe)
H2 - flat out victim waiting for the big greenie
I - Intelligent producer (signs your paycheck)
S - you’re a meatball (so dumb you’re a public danger)
B1 - stupid bandit (doing life for 3 Jiffy Mart holdups)
B2 - intelligent bandit (no record, no SocSec, drives Bentley)
Apparently no one smart enough to understand Cipolla frequents this thread.
It’s a formula - ratios of H 1 & 2 to I to S to B1 & 2.
Tells when society is getting ready to blow.
Brilliant man
I have only one question. After having been enticed by the subject, and its promises of wit, wisdom, and amusement, is there anyone here so stupid as to have read even half way into it???
Hey Baron Munchausen once bootstrapped himself out of a swamp by pulling on his own hair! Apparently, not even President Donald J. Trump could do that, even with his powerful wave of hair!
Add #4:
High intelligence does not prevent stupid acts.
I always say-not one of them could survive-two feet off that campus. They'd be a mark for every sharpster on earth.
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