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Bernardino Sassoli de Bianchi's avatar

I am utterly taken aback that Carlo M. Cipolla's "The basic laws of human stupidity" is not even mentioned. It's literally the only "serious" study of the subject by an utter genius. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_M._Cipolla

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Peter Bostock's avatar

I agree. I am continually at how perceptive the laws of human stupidity are, particularly the first law. We really underestimate how many stupid people are out there, and where they can be found. The analysis of why societies go to war, and how they conduct it is very revealing…. the USA’s last three in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and even the decisions not to goto war in Syria and Ukraine have been monumental examples of collective stupidity. Sadly it’s with the benefit of hindsight. I think Ted’s implicit point about history informing the present is quite valid, however the neoliberal abandonment of investment in the Arts in favour of STEM studies has meant that there is a lack of informed leaders and advice based on what happened in the past.

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Peter Bostock's avatar

I missed “amazed”. An amusing thought about this is that often people don’t realise that they are stupid…. I wonder if i’m being stupid at times and not know it.

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JBird4049's avatar

I think that while there are plenty of idiots out there, intelligence is somewhat overrated; good thinking like much else is learned at least by observation and if you are fortunate by family, friends, even coworkers who teach you how.

Some people are just too dumb or foolish, but too often nobody took the effort to show them how to use what intelligence they have, or more importantly, how to be wise for **that** is even more lacking.

And everyone, and trust me on this, most certainly me, has been an idiot or a fool sometimes. Knowing (and truly accepting that) is the beginning of wisdom.

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71 911E's avatar

Great comment. I'll add that what seems to be lacking is good old-fashioned common sense. I don't know it that's even available anymore, certainly not in the political realm.

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Jane Baker's avatar

Well I know I am stupid because from my earliest memories everyone (except my Mum) has not hesitated to tell me so. The fact that I'm still here aged 70 and a lot of them are not here doesn't of itself make my state of stupid more desirable than their high IQ of course. I often reflect that instead of living in bourgeois comfort as a Stupid,if I was high IQ I could be sleeping in a shop doorway,in rags adopting the beggars whine to coax a few pennies out of the Stupids. So enviable.

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Muriel Palmer-Rhea's avatar

Why do STEM and the Arts have to be unbalanced? One to the semi-exclusion of the other? My husband is continually shocked at seeing the school buses rolling at 2:30 pm. I’m not active in any school system, as my kids have kids of their own and live elsewhere. I do note that I’ve heard “When Charles was Coronated” more times than I wish to…🥹

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Peter Bostock's avatar

In Australia, our previous conservative government set the contribution fees (HECS)for Arts undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at rates much higher than STEM courses. It discourages students and consequently a wide range of Arts courses disappeared. Quite disappointing, but i think it was trying to eliminate those lefties from the system, you know the ones who protest.

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71 911E's avatar

Or perhaps it may be (or certainly is) because, in the real world that's likely to yield a better return on the taxpayers' investment. I do admit it's difficult to quantify what the return would be investing in the arts. I believe that, with the exception of state-run schools (and then only with states' tax dollars), the government should have no involvement in funding post-secondary education, and in the US getting the government out of backing school loans, which before Obamacare, were required to be paid, with no option for default. I also think that the colleges and universities should be responsible for providing loans to students. It would inevitably result in a reduction of tuition costs, which are completely out of hand.

Regarding Australia: My wife lived in Melbourne for three years in the late nineteen seventies. Her sons attended Catholic school and wore uniforms. Nothing fancy; very inexpensive. She thought that was a great system. She also talks about your version of Social Security (Superannuation I think it is/was called?) and thought it was also well conceived. I love the great tennis players of the sixties, seventies, and eighties: Laver, Emerson, Rosewall, Court, and Goolagong. I actually got to play with Emerson and Rosewall in a pro-am doubles tournament, and attend a cocktail party with them the following evening. Simply great guys. I hope you can turn things around a bit after the government overreach that occurred for several years as a result of the Wuflu.

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Albert Bover's avatar

I thought the same.

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ScottB's avatar

I read Cippola’s theory of stupidity in the sorely-missed Coevolution Quarterly (later renamed as The Whole Earth Review) way back when.

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