“Two things are infinite; the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” “The difference between genius and stupidity is that there is a limit to genius.” Albert Einstein
George Rebane
Unfortunately, common sense is far from being common.
The Republicans are headed to a well-deserved shellacking, The country will now bear the brunt of a fundamental transformation to an autocratic collectivism that our new Democrats – progressive Marxists, socialist, and communists – will now seek to inflict upon us. In the final analysis history has shown that such people are formally stupid.
A theory of stupidity was formulated by the noted German theologian and anti-Nazi resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer outlined in a letter written from a Nazi prison cell in 1943 (published in Letters and Papers from Prison). And his work is summarized in this YouTube video.
Economic historian Carlo Cipolla also gained worldwide notoriety 50 years ago by studying stupidity and documenting his findings in The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1976). You can get a good summary of his findings from another short YouTube video. The main findings of both men are congruent, and summarized below.
1. Stupidity is Far More Dangerous Than Malice
Both thinkers conclude that stupid individuals inflict greater net damage on humanity than openly malicious actors.
- Bonhoeffer: Argues that stupidity is a “more dangerous enemy of the good than malice.” Evil inherently carries the seeds of its own disruption because it provokes resistance, creates unease, and operates with a recognizable motive. Stupidity, by contrast, operates with an untroubled conscience and cannot be deterred.
- Cipolla: Formalizes this in his Fifth Law: “A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person”—specifically more dangerous than a “Bandit.” While a bandit merely transfers wealth or welfare from you to themselves (resulting in zero net change to total societal welfare), a stupid person causes losses to others while gaining nothing or even incurring losses producing a pure destruction of societal capital.
2. Rationality, Logic, and Evidence Are Useless Defenses
Both observe that ordinary tools of persuasion—facts, data, and reasoned debate—fail entirely against the stupid.
- Bonhoeffer: Notes that reason falls on deaf ears. When facts contradict a stupid person’s preconceived narrative, they simply deny the facts or brush them aside as trivial exceptions. Confronting them with evidence only angers them or prompts them to recite slogans.
- Cipolla: Highlights that because stupid actions do not adhere to any rational calculus or self-interest, they are fundamentally unpredictable. You cannot anticipate their attacks, defend against them with logic, or negotiate an equilibrium, because there is no rational objective to bargain against.
3. Independence from Education and Intellect
Neither author equates stupidity with low intelligence, lack of schooling, or neurological deficiency.
- Bonhoeffer: Stresses that stupidity is a human and moral defect rather than an intellectual one. He observes people who are remarkably agile intellectually yet completely stupid in their behavior and judgment.
- Cipolla: States in his Second Law that the probability of a person being stupid is entirely independent of any other characteristic. Stupidity occurs in fixed proportions across blue-collar workers, university professors, white-collar executives, and Nobel laureates alike.
4. Society Systematically Underestimates the Threat
Both warn that non-stupid individuals chronically misjudge the frequency and destructive power of stupidity, leading to catastrophe.
- Bonhoeffer: Laments that civilized society repeatedly leaves itself defenseless because it assumes goodwill, intellect, or common sense will prevail in public life, only to be overwhelmed when mass stupidity takes root.
- Cipolla: Codifies this in his First Law (“Everyone always and inevitably underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation”) and Fourth Law (“Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging potential of stupid individuals”). Non-stupid people continually make the fatal mistake of associating or negotiating with stupid actors, expecting rationality and paying an enormous cost.
I was again reminded of Bonhoeffer’s and Cippola’s work by recent polling that indicates the majority of our population now rejects free market capitalism, and looks favorably (longingly?) at socialism and communism as the way to set things on the right course. Nowhere is this malady more apparent than in the voters of California. Were our state an independent nation, it would surely launch social orders patterned after 1917 Russia and 1933 Germany. Fortunately, we have the ballast of other more reasonable and less stupid states to still resist the rush to an unquestioned embrace of tyranny. How long that shaky bulwark will hold is anybody’s guess. In the interval, tonight with strong drink in hand, let’s count the socialists on their way to Congress and the state capitals.
[4nov26 update] Well, it’s done, stupid triumphs. We have chosen the socialist cum communist road, and now the Democrats will do all possible in the next two years to make that a smooth road to big government, autocracy, central planning, more taxes, confiscation of private property, limiting freedoms, high prices, empty shelves, and equitable misery all around.
My parents and I spent half of my first year of my life in a hole in a deep Estonian forest, hiding from roaming bands of communist partisans searching to execute people like my father, a small electrical contractor and a capitalist. I pray that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren don’t have to repeat that experience, since they too are capitalists.
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