Why Stupid People are Destroying Society — The Laws of Human Stupidity

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”

Hanlon’s Razor

What is responsible for the sickness of modern society? Is it the evil machinations of the power hungry? Is it due to a conspiracy of the ruling class? In this video, relying on the Italian historian Carlo Cipolla’s essay The Basic Law’s of Human Stupidity, we explore how much of what ails society can attributed to the widespread prevalence of human stupidity.

“The stupid are all around us: they are in every place, in every class, ready to cause damage to others and naturally to themselves. The stupid form the most dangerous category of human beings. Woe betide those who underestimate them.”

Carlo Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

Cipolla believed that most of us are ignorant to the immense destruction caused by human stupidity. We easily recognize the effects of evil, corruption and greed, but we tend to overlook the damage caused by human stupidity. Cipolla wrote his essay to help correct for this blind spot, or as he wrote:

“The following pages are in fact the result of a constructive effort to detect, know and thus possibly neutralize one of the most powerful, dark forces which hinder the growth of human welfare and happiness.”

Carlo Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

In his essay Cipolla enumerates five basic laws of human stupidity, the first of which states: “Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.” The philosopher Voltaire echoed the sentiment behind this law when he wrote “Common sense is not so common.” While Einstein, in conversation with the German psychiatrist Frederick S. Perls, reportedly said “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”

Not only do we tend to underestimate the number of stupid people in society, but we also tend to underestimate the number of stupid people in our social orbit. We like to believe that members of our family, and those we socialize with, are smarter than average and it is only when they do something so incredibly stupid that it dawns on us that this person may in fact belong to the class of the stupid, or as Cipolla writes:

“No matter how high are one’s estimates of human stupidity, one is repeatedly and recurrently startled by the fact that: a) People whom one had once judged rational and intelligent turn out to be unashamedly stupid. b) Day after day, with unceasing monotony, one is harassed in one’s activities by stupid individuals who appear suddenly and unexpectedly in the most inconvenient places and at the most improbable moments.”

Carlo Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

The Second Basic Law of Human Stupidity states that: “The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.” The stupid are spread throughout all classes, ethnic groups, genders and races. They are found as frequently among the rich as the poor, they are found in politics and the business world, in academia and in science – there is, in other words, nowhere to hide from the effects of the stupid, or as Cipolla writes:

“Whether the Second Basic Law is liked or not, however, its implications are frightening: the Law implies that whether you move in distinguished circles or you take refuge among the head-hunters of Polynesia, whether you lock yourself into a monastery or decide to spend the rest of your life in the company of beautiful and lascivious women, you always have to face the same percentage of stupid people — which percentage (in accordance with the First Law) will always surpass your expectations.”

Carlo Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

While there are more stupid people than most of us can imagine and while they occupy all walks of life, some may wonder how Cipolla defines human stupidity. This is explained by his third law. To understand this law, however, we need to explore a basic way of categorizing people. Firstly, there is the category of the helpless. The helpless person is one whose actions produce a loss for himself, but a gain for someone else. Secondly, is the category of the bandit. The bandit is a person whose actions produce a gain for himself, but a loss for another. The third category is that of the intelligent. An intelligent person behaves in such a way that they produce a gain for themselves as well as a gain for others. And finally, there is the category of the stupid and as the Third Basic Law of Human Stupidity states:

“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.”

Carlo Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

Often our behavior will oscillate between these different categories. Sometimes we act in a helpless way, sometimes like a bandit, while at other times our actions will be characterized by their intelligence. But the stupid are different. The stupid consistently harm other people, while not deriving a gain for themselves. Cipolla even identified a class of the super-stupid, who take their stupidity to another level. Unlike the run of the mill stupid person who hurts another person through their actions while deriving no gain or loss to themselves, the super stupid consistently hurt themselves, and others, through the way they behave.

The stupid and the super-stupid are a menace to society. They are responsible for many of our social problems and in some cases the havoc they wreck can lead to the downfall of a civilization. Most people fail to recognize this and so the Fourth Basic Law of Human Stupidity states:

“Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people infallibly turns out to be a costly mistake.”

Carlo Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

Cipolla claims that the damage a stupid person causes is determined by two factors. The first factor is their innate stupidity. According to Cipolla, some people are genetically wired to act in profoundly stupid ways and the stupider someone naturally is, the greater the damage they will cause. The second factor determining the damage caused by a stupid person is the amount of power and social influence they possess. A stupid person who occupies a high-level position in government, the military, or in a large corporation, can cause far more damage than a stupid person who is unemployed. But how do the stupid reach such positions of power? Shouldn’t their stupidity prevent them from climbing the heights of social status? Cipolla explains:

“The question that reasonable people often raise is how and why stupid people can reach positions of power and consequence. Class and caste were the social arrangements which favoured the steady supply of stupid people to positions of power in most societies of the pre-industrial world. Religion was another contributing factor. . .But in lieu of class and caste we have political parties and bureaucracy and in lieu of religion we have democracy. Within a democratic system, general elections are a most effective instrument to insure the steady maintenance [of the stupid] among the powerful.”

Carlo Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

Elections allow the great number of the stupid in the general population to determine which politicians hold office and very often they elect someone stupid like them. And once a stupid person is in office, he or she helps to maintain the proportion of stupid people in bureaucracies and the judicial system by appointing them to positions of power. Thus, democracy ensures that a continual supply of stupid people walk the halls of governmental power.

Another reason that stupid people are such a menace to society is that most of us fail to detect their stupidity and fail to put up defenses against their actions. In Cipolla’s view stupid people are far more dangerous than even bandits as at least with a bandit there is rhyme and reason for how they behave. The bandit wants to obtain a gain for himself, he is just not intelligent, or moral enough, to do it in a way that produces a reciprocal gain for someone else. But the bandit’s actions, even if immoral, are still rational and so somewhat predictable. Not so with the stupid, or as Cipolla explains:

“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. Because the stupid person’s actions do not conform to the rules of rationality, it follows that: a) one is generally caught by surprise by the attack; b) even when one becomes aware of the attack, one cannot organize a rational defence, because the attack itself lacks any rational structure.”

Carlo Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

And this leads to the Fifth, and final, Basic Law of Human Stupidity, which states “A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.” (Carlo Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity)

The stupid impoverish society, ruin lives, including their own, and if they become too influential and occupy positions of great social power, such as a president or prime minister, social ruin is the inevitable result. Cipolla believed that the only way to prevent stupid people from ruining a society is if more people move from the classes of the bandits and the helpless into the class of the intelligent. For while the stupid lack the ability to change categories it is possible for the helpless and the bandits to learn to act in intelligent ways. And if there are enough intelligent people in society then their mutually beneficial actions will outweigh, or neutralize, the damage caused by the stupid.

Sadly, in the modern-day social forces are moving people in the opposite direction, away from the class of the intelligent into the classes of the bandits and the helpless. Paternalistic governments promote helpless behavior by minimizing the consequences for those who act in this manner. On the other hand, we have a social value system that elevates the attainment of wealth and material goods above all else which is creating such an insatiable desire for these things that many people have no problem acting like bandits to enrich themselves. Without enough intelligent people to neutralize the effects of the bandits and the stupid social collapse becomes an ever more likely possibility, or Cipolla writes:

“In a country which is moving downhill, the fraction of stupid people is [relatively constant] however in the remaining population one notices among those in power an alarming proliferation of the bandits with overtones of stupidity and among those not in power an equally alarming growth in the number of helpless individuals. Such change in the composition of the non-stupid population inevitably strengthens the destructive power of the [stupid] fraction and makes decline a certainty. And the country goes to Hell.”

Carlo Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

EDITORS NOTE: This Academy of Ideas video and column are republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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