Posted by:
elderolddog
(
)
Date: April 08, 2021 12:43PM
Here is my careful distillation of Carlo M. Cipolla's essay on what makes me tick (turns out that Wikipedia came up with exactly the same interpretation! What are the odds!):
First Fundamental Law: Always and inevitably each of us underestimates the number of stupid individuals surrounding us.
Second Fundamental Law: The probability that a certain person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
Third (and Golden) Basic Law: A stupid person is a person who causes harm to another person or group of people without at the same time realizing any advantage for himself or even suffering any loss.
Fourth Basic Law: Non-stupid people always underestimate the harmful potential of stupid people. In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget that at any time and place, and under any circumstances, dealing with and/or associating with stupid individuals unfailingly proves to be a very costly mistake. (I'm calling this The Cat law)
Fifth Fundamental Law: The stupid person is the most dangerous type of person there is. Corollary: A stupid person is more dangerous than a dishonest person and/or a prophet.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegro_ma_non_troppo_(saggio)
I think that careful consideration and consultation are required in order that we come to a consensus regarding a mutual agreement on just what constitutes a Stupid Person.
We have ALL committed 'stupidities', but just how isolated do our individual stupidities have to be before we can be lifted out of the general population of stupid people?