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Cipolla’s 5 Laws of Human Stupidity
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The 5 Basic LAWS of Human STUPIDITY | Carlo M. Cipolla
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The Basic Laws Of Human Stupidity
Quick Review The Basic Laws Of Human Stupidity
Carlo M. Cipolla (15.08.1922 – 5.09.2000)The Basic Laws Of Human Stupidity1976Doubleday Books Un ensayo de 1976 convertido en libro, convertido en best seller porque… se puede creer y está basado, hasta donde entiendo en el estudio… no en percepciones. Léanlo. Entre broma y no: estamos rodeados (quizá hasta cooperemos), no necesariamente los identificamos, subestimamos el daño que provocan estos…
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The 5 Laws of Human Stupidity That You Must Know!
Learn about the 5 basic laws of human stupidity according to renowned historian Carlo M. Cipolla. With examples from history, discover the logic (or lack thereof) behind human foolishness. From the rise of Nazi Germany to everyday life, these laws will change the way you think about stupidity forever.
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Carlo Cipolla's law of stupidity states that "always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation." Even though Cipolla originally wrote about the principle and its consequences for society in the form of an amusing letter to his friends, it gained wide attention. Today Cipolla's law is often used to highlight the importance of critical thinking and careful decision making in order to counteract the potential effects of endemic ignorance.
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The Basic Laws of Stupidity
Professor Carlo M. Cipolla
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.
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These are Cipolla's five fundamental laws of stupidity:
Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
The probability that a certain person (will) be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
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.
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.
A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.
Corollary: a stupid person is more dangerous than a pillager.
The long version http://harmful.cat-v.org/people/basic-laws-of-human-stupidity/
DeSantis is either a bandit or a very stupid person.
"Reality skews left". 100%
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The 5 Basic LAWS of Human STUPIDITY | Carlo M. Cipolla
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ChatGPT: The concept of time, especially in the context of Einstein's theory of relativity, can be quite fascinating and complex. According to Einstein's theory, time is not absolute but is relative and can be affected by factors such as gravity and velocity. This means that the passage of time can differ for observers in different conditions.
In everyday experience, we perceive time as moving from the present into the future, with the present moment constantly becoming the past. This is the conventional understanding of time's flow based on our subjective experience.
However, in physics, particularly with the theory of relativity, time is viewed more dynamically. Time dilation, a phenomenon predicted by relativity, suggests that time can pass at different rates for observers in different states of motion or gravitational fields. For example, time can appear to move slower for objects in motion at speeds close to the speed of light or in strong gravitational fields.
As for the concept of "future in the past," it's more of a philosophical or linguistic concept rather than a physical reality in the context of physics. In everyday language, we might refer to memories or predictions about the future that were made in the past, but in terms of physics, time's progression is typically viewed as moving forward from the present moment.
The perception that the present constantly turns into the past is rooted in our experience of time passing. This subjective feeling aligns with our conventional understanding, where events move from the future to the present and then into the past. However, the deeper nature of time, as explored in physics, reveals a more intricate and dynamic relationship that challenges this straightforward linear progression.
TROO
Tulnukas 2
CoVidz
/Temp
putini termi
agressiivo ProgressSiivoo
cunti
чтоб была неизвестно и без понятия
не знал , не ожидал , никто не представляет
они нихуя не знают , но играют - весело
Motörhead
countries
education system
ETV SVT BBC RAI
99% madness
comply observe merge adapt
koeravile dog-whistle ≠ tinnitus
smoked through superintelligent joints
saare ma mudilased. avastamata liik kilpkonn Tartu muuseumis lagunenud
che senso
bobaGens - nonsense que bom è legal
automobilisti america
0 - 1 y.o.
cipolla's 5 laws of stupidity egoism altRuism abitus
max 5 yo mental capability
human brain is extremely weak dumb limited
smartphone - dumb-fone
ideas for sustainable future
autist never understands concepts and expressions
0.0001100011101001101010110
AI = Beetlejuice :D :)
eash-n-repeat
just ni
Las Grande Hack
SVT veri zone code
E=mc2
mclaren
Term
Alien - o o 9 6 @ 0 0 °©® - AI love circle
livestream otse okse
time & money
wrong time & wrong place <=> в нужном время в нужном месте Õigel ajal õiges kohas
you forgot their HATE & war
shit
kaif in God
lõngakera - كرة من الغزل kurat min alghazal
saad tõmbad lühema õlekõrre
youtube: smart & horny teen "we believe in The ONE"
observer
Leibu since 1762 ? 260 aastat
ignore the whole fuck-around
it's, ma kaa ! territorial games
in Europe only Ma caa que Ma caa que Ma caa que Mercedes Lamborghini …
Albino Shimpanzee
discourage activity and existence
kas hullumeelsed ahvid kontrollivad inimesi vs. inimesed kontrollivad ahve
Guy
Van
Noorte Tehnikute koni
russians produced text standards languages tech mir
Rassida ja rassida lihtsalt
we will just take it back
FREE DOM
WW3
poldi arvutused
time-paradox
è niente
forever никогда
concise
parola
block-by-block
Sigma is on top of EVERY THING
/Sys calculates like motherfucker
vene tema - e-sys no work
Control Panel
millest sa lähtud
miss oli
dump this kid (shock is nothing)
ABC pole olnud
võõras territoorium
psycho ema isa vend boyfriend sõbrad
disdain and contempt towards all other humans. vindictive and scorned woman despise everyone
no trust , Use everyone ,
Borg assimilated Seven of Nine, born Annika Hansen, a Human female who lived during the latter half of the 24th century
RIIGI Kinnisvara
"Электроника 10"™
All matter is made up of atoms + - quark photon
glitch - 2 versions exist but actually neither (like electron)
dogshit
Tartu sitaauk
can you AID me
retard eksaminaator
Annan suvalised vastukäivad erinevad juhised, siis karjun miks sa teed ei järgi - läbikukkunud
adverse situations
nr.1. rule - if you don't take money, you don't get money
printing money -> Federal Reserve (central bank) -> Banks -> loans to business -> payment for services -> {WASTED}
ei talu enam
vepsä, petseri venelased vene naiste lollus
We all wish for everyone to die, "Last Hope"
take care bai bai
I don't know when, I don't know how, But I will find a way
"To conquer a planet" (in any language)
"it works - this generates money"
Arved - random irrelevant bills U pay
bigger bills burn better
dolla-mula-nutts mani soldi dinero denarius moneta мусор debt-notes IOU credit
secret source of income
petavad raha välja
ja vat , selge ülekohus
bullshit seller
just! kust raha saad üldse
kuradi lollitajate ja petiste kari (igas keeles)
kontroll ja mäng (et juhtida ja sitta keerata)
? farming equipment (tractors, harvesters, machinery .. )
"Veskimees" on elu ja arvuti metafoor - löö aknad säravaks, küll tuleb rahvas ..
<< faith in humanity restored >>
Milky Way & Andromeda collision
.. don't worry, In a hundred years none of this even matters Don't worry, nothing's gonna happen, not in a hundred years
20 years of "internet-jokes"
100% correct calculations - ALL wrong (higher maths)
💯 100 летаешь… сто будет,, ии, авария
politsei lendab ringi , niisama , reaalselt cherries on top KTM kütab mööda
mm mm kiss-kiss
olè reaalselt tibiil ,(nagu kõik)
.. las paneb pauku piki "Trump'i seina" hihi , vene joodik козел
Putin cooperative
Very old pre-Russian simp
disrespectful alco ciggie simp
nolk ja libu
astu siuksele selja taha ja lase maha
Sheik's piir tobe or not tobe
telefoni-tööd bluetooth kes-keda miks mida millal kuidas kus
õppis tüdrukuid "sellist mõttemaailma ei või olla!" female-female natural selection.. etc
shitting yourself, from fear survival
torture call-center scammer until they give up
munnigi pole selle motherfucker asshole'iga
Russians worked in Germany USA,, and returned home Davai, идёшь в Москву
practically, from russia
Русский мир
свобода России <- никогда не будет
УКВ - а у кого радио, di appa zona - IT
(nad suhtlevad sellega keda nad näevad)
usalduse puudumine
valeinfo
töö ja õppe keskkond
selle tee jaoks raha pole
kaua see mäng siin käib
no davai, põldki
autist - geenius , mada wipe my ass
Humans outsmart everyone else
rap italiano
Parlamo parlamo. ei=no , mine lol'iks
wtf möla irrelevant
inimesed kaitsevad ennast ja oma kontosid
aju ja mõistuse tööga paned mõtlemise kokku (eesti, vene, inglise, itaalia, matemaatika .. ) - mõistus jookseb - töö, suhtlemine ..
pangakonto bilanss budget
- punane roheline rohepööre
vale sitt
In 2019, there were a total of 333,000 active pilots working in the aviation industry.
aviation petrol
never had a friend (1 friend who saved)
jumala putsis
käi putsi
ultimatum horribilis
Чего болтаешь?, Иди на хуй. вечно Иди на хуй
politsei uurija
homo sapiens - pidar jobanniy - saatanan perkele - saatana tõprad
only bad traits
lollita/trollita/valeta (lol/troll/lie)
"mul pohhui" mentaliteet
lased teadvuse õhku ja alustad nullist
control Universe with smartphone "U don't control US!!" I will establish absolute control with iphone and cash in the money
fuck me, you can imprison me, you can kill me, but I'm gonna learn this game either way
"everything in life is a game, I'll lie my way through it .."
e-heh-hee, I have millions of dollars and I'll take more
commit a crime and frame someone else as the culprit (pane toime kuritöö ja sea üles keegi teine süüdlasena)
perché - why
allora natuke
metallo italiano
è una succhia , Dio , Uomo
Escort Bettona
töö
tiktok
xiaomi
Be a Bee 🐝 sun-lovers
sitasitikas
Matrix movie: red pill or blue pill (or cancel) ( trans lesbo director )
fuck mee , welder
BITCH'ID keevitavad kõik kokku
inter-näts + bitchUzi
""Martin" on CASE - kaotame ta ära !!"
lihtsalt pidev tegevus et eluaegse saaks
Sentence: Life imprisonment Three-strikes law
--> nad õpivad võtma - Kui ei võta siis midagi ei saa (igaüks peab elama millestki ja võitma)
Kõige hullem probleem on inimene eks otsi kus midagi tagantjärgi parandada stupid
sitt venelane
secrete weapon in my pocket
läbi kukutada (kas pole võimalik)
keerati Kägu - Cuckoos are summer visitors and known for being brood parasites
salmon tries to swim upstream to mate/spawn/lay eggs
evil imbeciles and born psychopaths who think they're something amazing
see pole hallukad, lihtsalt aju hetkeline uni, kogetud ja mõeldud asjad (mitte see mida pole kogenud või näinud) hallucinates
Artifical (and human) intellect hallucinates
AI
Terminator
- bilanss punane CoVideo roheline "rohe-pööre"
аккумулятор, модуль…
Jedi vs Sith
loob UDA (≠) abandoned
süsteem heitti rahat ja info päin menneisyyttä, seuraa, anarkiaa juba teab psükopaatit pärjää parhaiten (VAIN psükopaatti pärjää (pärja kaela robotile)) ihmis-kunta jumalasta pakko saatanan rauhanomainen vegeta saatanan eestin-kielinen poika kaikentietäjä kenelle sä siitä kerrot
Hawaii tähtitieteilijä "it could've been a planet .. .. "
кот мужской (и никогда не понимает) Le chat
catfishing hacking
low-life-hackers
human !
white blood cells leukocytes kannibal
krediitkaarti kasutavad kõik
bitches sniffed out everything sniffed you OUT
you don't get the gist!
Get real võta mõistus pähe
все преследуют закона everyone is pursuing the law
evil joke, to confuse someone
"fuk you. Give me the money"
saatuslikud vead vigu arvutad (ainult vead arvutad läbi), Elada ei oska (it's impossible to recover from these mistakes) Future will be unattainable
Võib olla asju mida inimkond ja internet üldse ei tea
truth is stranger than fiction
initial plan
"sinä ett tuu suomeen !!"
tuleeko se sota tai ei
tatt
you have no money - no vocational courses, no schooling, no work, no skill, no time
muud võimalust ei ole
kontroll on pidev, Kontrollitakse inimest kogu aeg, Kui kontrolli pole saadetakse nahhui
criminal parents
brainless animals, without intelligence
killer motherfuckers saatanan perkele imbecile ape simp
app kasutab inimesi ära
kuradi värdjas, sul on otsaesine ju lame ja pea on kõver
intelligence is important
dangerous dumb-cells ( psycho-socio ) incompetent sociopaths
Life is experience
amokki jooks
sKUUL школа
VASTU töötavad ( против творения )
"нахуй" кричит система
Putin killer , russkii war
took over land , houses .. Burned church
collected cigarette-butts to sell a bit
nussida kõiki
nuss - pähklike
to stay alive
lifetime fear and revenge
hullud töötavad hullude vastu
selga lastakse kuul ja lükatakse auku
ainult negatiivsed iseloomuomadused … kadedus …
facebook lol
mathematical constants language reading history
ты ничего никогда не понимаешь POMOgat naado
if you're childish, we will fight against you
kedagi ei huvita kes sa selline oled
inimesed ei lähe siit kuhugi
vladimir harkonnen son , Rautha Harkonnen (Dune2) killer-rotid
kahjutuks teha
hull on hull , vahet pole
anarchy accidents
"just ütlesin et midagi ei mõtle" "taskutussu"
bitchu'd matavad su maha, et sind ei oleks (Ta ei tohi eksisteerida) Pole sinu oma, üldse .. Üldse midagi sul pole
simp chimpanzee not ape
siga peab lõikama
they're ignorant, unaware .. of consciousness, knowledge, mind ..
remember what they did , the foreigners, abroad
don't tolerate even yourself or your kind
change for the better .. u must have a plan!, foolproof. it can be anything - idea, realisation, time, space, life, genius, God … - it doesn't help
eijumalauts
territorial games
süsteem/strateegia/tuleviku-plaan peab olema
pere-firma
0.1% of 1billion = 1million Earth pop. 8billion
ületamatu takistus - insurmountable obstacle act of god force majeure vis major irresistible compulsion or greater force. unforeseeable circumstances that prevent someone from fulfilling a contract.
takisti vastustaja vastus vastaan-…
regress
nussida teisi
Basics of intelligent behaviour
There's nobody on Earth. Kõik otsivad kuidas sitta keerata ja raha võtta
EW miljard lasti õhku
blokeeri ja teavita 911 telefoniga ättäck
World Autism Awareness Day - April 2
dangerous humans don't speak.
inglish - can b american (no?) perché italian - can b italian russian - can b russian swedish - can b swedish
это был против сделано , для Juhan Julm Жестокий
idi nakhui, mne pohui
olevik muutub minevikuks, tulevikku pole
Star Wars: Last Hope
soomes mikrobuss hui-laa viuviu
riigireetur (enemy-of-the-state)
vale-info on see kõik can't follow endless lies
seadmed/devices , tools, equipment
pole raha ega aega olnudki
nõdrameelsed = weak minded
surrounded by evil, dumb, mindless apes
debiilikutest ahvide hulgas elanud laps
jama teha (sõda,jms saatan) - priority nr.1 rõvetised - neanderthal+african-albino
hybrid
Tulnukas ehk Valdise pääsemine 11 osas
fantasmic
la nonsense
start war, blame victim They destroy the Peace (knowingly,unknowingly, willfully ..)
rude imbecile invaded boss private area
behavioral mistakes
japan capital punishment - drop hanging
in a alternate universe
egiptuse ilu eliit faarao põgenes itaaliasse, Araablased tapsid ära
life will be extremely difficult, but u have no choice (assembly, koostamine)
finska-svenska + LA millionaire
spordikommentaatorid (real tekst) !!!
GGG - "Kaob Kõik" (everything disappears into chaos - "entropy")
psüühika-häire !!! mental health mental stability vaimne tervis hingeline tasakaal depression tugevus, vastupanuvõime - finants, füüsiline, vaimne henkilö
I I I AI AI AI
false info
unemployed youtube genius
blacklisting
Italian caves for shelter
Taylor Swift - "Mean"
Diablo
Martin on pelkkä aivoton eläin, siksi se on itkenyt koko elämänsä ajan
grandfather paradox - saatana tütar sünnitas kuradi
saatana siga saatanan perkele saatanan perkele kehittyy saatanassa
pirulainen eikä virolainen
jumala kiir valib saatana ja saatan võidab
fuckup пипец говнюха
"inimestest peab lahti saama, ükskõik kuidas" "sina siin ei ela enam"
kavalam võim / smarter power
"I hope you die"
you cannot win evil
you're not helping to build the future
you're a simpleton autist
30% are psychopathic humanity is psychopathic
competition - we win, we want you to fail
sina tööd ega raha ei anna, meie oleme töö teind
saavad jumalateenrid igapäevast leiba teenida
"Nukitsamees" saatana kuradid
möira-ahvid tegutsevad koos
inimene on loom ja peab väljas olema
"scare-the-monkey game"
tribal war
mental war, till last drop "we kill u, u russian bastard"
fearful evil female socio, psychopath advising
sociopath-psychopath - proton-electron
"The Dark Triad" triangle (kolmnurk)
they're all shameless sluts looking for men
naiivne loll ei saanud aru
.. ja mängivadki lolli
vene masin pead olema, inimesed on väsinud "Машина" Maassa
muulane
"Stairway To Heaven" in reverse - 666 arabic
veri, ristreaktiivsus, antigeenid
Helsinki dating
saatanan-persreiässä
poti-lasta - patient - patsient
värdjas oled ju sind peab tapma
"sündimine on patt" (maybe) predicted before conception: will not exist
pommiähvarduse tegijat otsitakse
me otsime kogu aeg kuidas pahatahtlikkust luua
vale-infot peab looma
sa oled tühipaljas lamp (mitte inim-mõistus)
we work everywhere and control Earth
usa - chimp-ape zoo kill humans
domestic pigs, once released into the wild, will revert to wild pigs
"Back To The Future" - time paradox - (future was in 80's) (future-in-the-past)
Lapsepõlves kardsidki pimedust .. vanaisa kah .. ahju-luuki ja elektrit käisid näppimas
homo civilization invented, You learned
you don't value time&money , you value skills and knowledge (but have neither)
inimene pole tegelikult center-of-the-world
inimene pole see kelleks sa teda pead
"Life is a bitch"
naine:"mees lic päris vähe"
"ты плохои малчик"
progress-regress (-gress- comes from Latin, where it has the meaning "step" ..)
kõik on vastu
puhtaks lüüa kogu lollus - jumal lööbki paugust
kirik on kogu inimkonna nahhui saatmise koht, läbi "jumala" (odio! per l'amor di Dio)
nullist alustad jälle, iga päev
teenima peab
kohus/responsibility 24/7
konflikt: power SLAP! pizdanuuha , politseile nikkuda Milline riik kaitset pakub koda'nikule
olukord võiks olla 100 korda hullem
elu põhitõed ja teadmised ei ole paigas
just a joke they are joking
humanity is fully evil
ihmiskunta guards everything
it can be any secret information, u do not know
psüühikas on peegeldus
telefonidega maha lasta
kui sa selline tropp oled siis maksame kätte. karma is a bitch
sa ei tea, kuidas käituda, Me ei suhtle selliste inimestega üldse you don't know how to behave, We don't deal with people like that at all ты не знаешь как себя вести, мы с такими людьми вообще не занимаемся
see on kõik rumaluse ärakasutamine (äri, profit, religion, relationship, religion..) - Trust
"sa ei saa niukest asja teha …" "davai, siis võtame maha ja lõpetame"
iga mees õpib valima autot ja naist
cancer victim will retaliate
insta: MissUnderstanding
genius
immigratsiooni-problem
calculations count
õpi HOMSET päeva looma !! jms jumala eest
elu seadused: emased plikad võidavad ja jagavad kõik ära
(assimileerida hullude seasse)(sheep (in eng.)) grillè põlema panna ja grillida, saab hea sea.. Sead sisisevad et inimene on paha
brainwashed humans lie all their life
mitte midagi loogilist mõistlikku .. enam pole real logic system paneb luksuma
Ted Kaczynski (math genius terro geni)
Diogenes of Sinope: The Dog Philosopher (Cynicism) - masturbated in towel in public
Awoke man realised - it's been litsi-panek
people live in modern times not ancient times
psychopath has no fear
mõni vanake tõuseb alfa-psychost, teine usub jumalasse
psycho is personality type
it has been the right decision by the more cunning ones
Alpha-male must protect the species
Universumis aega ei eksisteeri .. SINUL kaob aeg ära, SINU elu on liiga lühike, SINU ajad kaovad ..
Neil DeGrasse Tyson: "Time Is Relative". "we are prisoners of the present. forever transitioning between our inaccessible past and our unknowable future" - prisoners of time .. could u escape that prison - u go back or to the future
parallel time-frames/stringtheory
time and god is war
That's why conflict arises - nobody is concerned about YOU .. YOU are the problem
Glasgow smile beerbottle (wikipedia) Joker vs Bat-man
They're apes, They're not communicators or intelligence, They "socialize" but anti-contact anti-thought
Sigma male:
it takes a long time to trust someone
if anything smells bad, they'll back away quickly
they don't want a lot of friends
they're highly skeptical
expectations for loyalty and trust are high
their quiet and mysterious nature intimidates others
they dislike getting involved in conflicts or drama
they're not fans of big crowds
they're selective about who they allow into their life
they are rare and often misunderstood
jumal ongi see mis kõik energiaks lagundab (entropy)
old gold vs aggressive substance gold is old 4.5 billion years
NASA foto Pillars-Of-Creation - jumala vitt või saatana türa
I am The Force and The Force is with me Findland is di Forte and Findland is meh
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Yet another confirmation of Cipolla’s laws. The belief that it is moral for a country to spend decades oppressing their neighbors, stealing their land and starving their children, and then using their inevitable violent response as an excuse to do it all harder, faster, and more horribly seems unrealistic at best. Yes, I know I might as easily be talking about the US; maybe that’s the connection.
Apparently Dershowitz supports fascism at home as well as abroad.
(Interesting that the DNC caught flak from both sides over this issue.)
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This scares the crap out of me.
I simply cannot wrap my head around the way these people think. Do they fear “the other” so much they’re willing to give up the rule of law? Do they actually think they’re the ones the dictator will protect? Carlo Cipolla said there’s no correlation with IQ, education, standard of living, or any other metric we could twist into an explanation, but he never said why or how to communicate with them. He only said they’re the most dangerous people in the world.
Trump Supporters Wearing Dictator Themed Merch
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Cipolla's Basic Laws of Human Foolishness
Food for thought 🤔
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Cipolla’s Basic Laws of Human Foolishness
I read today about the theory of human foolishness developed by Italian historian Carlo M. Cipolla, mentioned by Elena Gold on Quora. Cipolla was born in 1922 and died in 2000. He grew up during a turbulent period in Italy, that of classic fascism. Somehow, he managed to grow up without sharing the ideology of fascism […]Cipolla’s Basic Laws of Human Foolishness
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Watch "Cipolla’s 5 Laws of Human Stupidity" on YouTube
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The Five Universal Laws of Human Stupidity
We underestimate the stupid, and we do so at our own peril.
Quartz Corinne Purtill
In 1976, a professor of economic history at the University of California, Berkeley published an essay outlining the fundamental laws of a force he perceived as humanity’s greatest existential threat: Stupidity.
Stupid people, Carlo M. Cipolla explained, share several identifying traits: they are abundant, they are irrational, and they cause problems for others without apparent benefit to themselves, thereby lowering society’s total well-being. There are no defenses against stupidity, argued the Italian-born professor, who died in 2000. The only way a society can avoid being crushed by the burden of its idiots is if the non-stupid work even harder to offset the losses of their stupid brethren.
Let’s take a look at Cipolla’s five basic laws of human stupidity:
Law 1: Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
No matter how many idiots you suspect yourself surrounded by, Cipolla wrote, you are invariably lowballing the total. This problem is compounded by biased assumptions that certain people are intelligent based on superficial factors like their job, education level, or other traits we believe to be exclusive of stupidity. They aren’t. Which takes us to:
Law 2: The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
Cipolla posits stupidity is a variable that remains constant across all populations. Every category one can imagine—gender, race, nationality, education level, income—possesses a fixed percentage of stupid people. There are stupid college professors. There are stupid people at Davos and at the UN General Assembly. There are stupid people in every nation on earth. How numerous are the stupid amongst us? It’s impossible to say. And any guess would almost certainly violate the first law, anyway.
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.
Cipolla called this one the Golden Law of stupidity. A stupid person, according to the economist, is one who causes problems for others without any clear benefit to himself.
The uncle unable to stop himself from posting fake news articles to Facebook? Stupid. The customer service representative who keeps you on the phone for an hour, hangs up on you twice, and somehow still manages to screw up your account? Stupid.
This law also introduces three other phenotypes that Cipolla says co-exist alongside stupidity. First there is the intelligent person, whose actions benefit both himself and others. Then there is the bandit, who benefits himself at others’ expense. And lastly there is the helpless person, whose actions enrich others at his own expense. Cipolla imagined the four types along a graph, like this:
The non-stupid are a flawed and inconsistent bunch. Sometimes we act intelligently, sometimes we are selfish bandits, sometimes we act helplessly and are taken advantage of by others, and sometimes we’re a bit of both. The stupid, in comparison, are paragons of consistency, acting at all times with unyielding idiocy.
However, consistent stupidity is the only consistent thing about the stupid. This is what makes stupid people so dangerous. Cipolla explains: Essentially stupid people are dangerous and damaging because reasonable people find it difficult to imagine and understand unreasonable behavior. An intelligent person may understand the logic of a bandit. The bandit’s actions follow a pattern of rationality: nasty rationality, if you like, but still rationality. The bandit wants a plus on his account. Since he is not intelligent enough to devise ways of obtaining the plus as well as providing you with a plus, he will produce his plus by causing a minus to appear on your account. All this is bad, but it is rational and if you are rational you can predict it. You can foresee a bandit’s actions, his nasty maneuvres and ugly aspirations and often can build up your defenses. With a stupid person all this is absolutely impossible as explained by the Third Basic Law. A stupid creature will harass you for no reason, for no advantage, without any plan or scheme and at the most improbable times and places. You have no rational way of telling if and when and how and why the stupid creature attacks. When confronted with a stupid individual you are completely at his mercy.
All of which leads us to:
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.
We underestimate the stupid, and we do so at our own peril. This brings us to the fifth and final law:
Law 5: A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.
And its corollary:
A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit.
We can do nothing about the stupid. The difference between societies that collapse under the weight of their stupid citizens and those who transcend them are the makeup of the non-stupid. Those progressing in spite of their stupid possess a high proportion of people acting intelligently, those who counterbalance the stupid’s losses by bringing about gains for themselves and their fellows.
Declining societies have the same percentage of stupid people as successful ones. But they also have high percentages of helpless people and, Cipolla writes, “an alarming proliferation of the bandits with overtones of stupidity.”
“Such change in the composition of the non-stupid population inevitably strengthens the destructive power of the [stupid] fraction and makes decline a certainty,” Cipolla concludes. “And the country goes to Hell.”
Corinne Purtill writes about culture, behavioral science, and management. Based at various times in Washington, D.C., Phnom Penh, New York, and London, she has written about everything from terrorism to the search for the Loch Ness Monster. She has a BA in English from Stanford University and reports now from southern California.
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