Carlo Cipolla Las Leyes Fundamentales De La Estupidez -

A stupid person is not simply “someone who disagrees with me.” Stupidity, for Cipolla, is a . It is a mutation of the human spirit, randomly distributed like blue eyes or baldness. You cannot cure it with a lecture. You cannot vote it out. You cannot teach it away.

In 1976, a sardonic Italian economic historian named Carlo M. Cipolla published a 63-page essay that began as a joke among friends and ended as a cult classic in behavioral economics. Titled The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity ( Allegro ma non troppo ), the essay is not merely a rant. It is a rigorous, almost mathematical, model of human behavior. It is satire dressed as sociology, and beneath the humor lies a terrifyingly accurate diagnosis of why your boss, your government, and the guy who cuts you off in traffic are slowly destroying civilization. Carlo Cipolla Las Leyes Fundamentales De La Estupidez

Because we try to rationalize stupidity, we fail to defend against it. We assume the guy driving the wrong way on the highway will realize his mistake. We assume the manager implementing a destructive policy has a secret plan. They don’t. And by the time we realize it, the damage is done. “A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person there is.” The crescendo. Cipolla argues that the Bandit is dangerous, but containable. The Helpless are sad, but manageable. The Intelligent are the salt of the earth. A stupid person is not simply “someone who