Four laws of stupidity according to Carlo Cipolla

Italian historian and economist Carlo Cipolla very thoroughly approached the question about the nature of stupidity. After years of research has led scientist to the fact that he formulated five universal laws operating in every society. It turned out that the nonsense itself is much more dangerous than we used to think of her.

The first law of stupidity

People always underestimate the number of idiots who surround him.
Sounds like a vague banality and snobbery, but life proves it so. No matter how you judge people, you will constantly be faced with the following situations:
The man who always seemed intelligent and rational, is incredible idiot;
Fools all the time occur in the most unexpected places at the wrong time to ruin your plans.

The second law of stupidity

The probability that a person is stupid is independent of its other qualities.
Years of observations and experiences confirmed my belief that people are not equal, some are stupid, others are not, and this quality is laid by nature, and not cultural factors. The man is a fool as well as he is red or has the first blood group. He was born in Providence, if you want.

Education has nothing to do with the probability of having a certain number of fools in society. This was confirmed by numerous experiments in universities on five groups: students, office workers, maintenance personnel, administration staff and teachers. When I analyzed the group of low-skilled workers, the number of fools was greater than I expected (First law), and I chalked it up to social conditions: poverty, segregation, lack of education. But climbing higher on the social ladder, the same ratio I saw among white-collar workers and students. Even more impressive was to see the same number among professors — I had a small College or a large University, the same proportion of teachers were fools. I was so amazed with the results that he decided to conduct an experiment over intellectual elite — Nobel laureates. The result confirmed the superpowers of nature: the same a certain number of winners was stupid.

The idea, which expresses the Second law, it is difficult to accept, but numerous experiments confirm its concrete case. Feminists will support the Second law, because it says that dur among women no more than fools among men. Residents of third world countries be comforted by the fact that developed countries are not so developed. Insights from the Second law scare: will you rotate in British high society or move to Polynesia, having made friends with the local headhunters; sharpen if you find yourself in a monastery or spend the rest of your life in casino surrounded by sales women, you will have to face the same amount of idiots that (the First law) will always exceed your expectations.

The third law of stupidity

The fool — the man whose actions lead to losses for another person or group of people, and thus do not benefit most current subject or even turn into harm to him.
The third law implies that all people are divided into 4 groups: simple (P), clever (At), bandits (B) and fools (G).
If Peter is taking action, which bears the losses and benefits Vasya, it refers to the suckers (area P). If Peter does something that benefits him and Bob, he's a smart guy, because he acted cleverly (area). If the actions Petit bear him a benefit, and Bob suffers from them, Peter — bandit (zone B). And finally, Peter-a fool is in zone G, in the negative zone on both axes.
It is not difficult to imagine the extent of the damage which can cause fools, getting in the managerial bodies and with political and social powers. But we should also clarify what exactly makes a stupid threat.

Stupid people are dangerous because rational people can hardly imagine the logic of irrational behavior. An intelligent person is able to understand the logic of a bandit, because the bandit is rational — he only wants to get more benefits and at the same time not smart enough to earn them. Bandit predictable, because against him it is possible to build protection. To predict the actions of a fool cannot, he will harm you without reason, without purpose, without a plan, in the most unexpected place, at the wrong time. You have no way to know when an idiot will strike. In a confrontation with a fool a clever person gives himself completely to the mercy of the fool, a random creation without clear rules nerd.

Attack the fool is usually surprised.

Even when the attack becomes apparent, it is difficult to defend because it has no rational structure.
This is what Schiller wrote: "Against stupidity even the gods are powerless".

The fourth law of stupidity

Non-fools always underestimate the destructive potential of fools.
In particular, not-fools constantly forget that you have to deal with a fool, at any time, in any place and in any situation.

Source: success in life