An Opportunity to Consider Stupidity

For those of you who have not yet seen Albert Nerenberg’s light-hearted  documentary, Stupidity, I recommend it as food for thought. Although parts of the movie are comic, the impact of human stupidity is far from humorous. From people’s inability to define stupidity to our global leaders inability to effectively employ antidotes to global warming and war, we constantly reap the painful and often cataclysmic effects of human stupidity.

Nerenberg is interested in the study of stupidity and its causes so that we may choose another route and pursue wisdom instead. For all the studies on intelligence and wisdom, according to Nerenberg the study of stupidity is quite paltry in comparison. Is stupidity so stupefying that even the best minds find it beyond their capability to study? Or are we so arrogant as to consider human stupidity unworthy of our serious study? Either way, we have proven over the millennia that human stupidity is recurrent and seemingly boundless. It is neither a laughing matter nor is “Stupid!” merely an epithet to hurl at someone with whom we disagree. I’m sure that each one of us can admirably demonstrate stupidity in our own lives.

In the 1970′s Carlo M. Cipolla circulated an essay, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. In 1987, The Whole Earth Review republished the essay with pictures and titled it The Fundamental Laws of Human Stupidity. Due to copyright rules I cannot reproduce this article but it is easily located via google and the specific laws are listed in the wikipedia link that I have provided for Dr. Cipolla. That said, Cipolla’s definition of a stupid person is of interest. “A person is stupid if they cause damage to another person or group of people without experiencing personal gain, or even worse causing damage to themselves in the process.” Why are we consistently willing to do damage to ourselves and others?

Although I don’t think that I have THE answer, I do have one possible answer. It is a matter of lack of awareness and fear. So many times I have done stupid things by not paying attention. For example, by forgetting to a pay a bill on time, I have had to pay an extra fee to compensate for my tardiness. Not only have I made the person who provided me a service wait for their reimbursement, I have unnecessarily paid extra. This is a small example of stupidity. A much larger example of stupidity is that for a long time I was in denial about our environment. I drove unnecessarily and didn’t think much about sustainability. I told myself that the impact of my actions was minuscule and couldn’t possibly make a difference. However, I recently realized that if large numbers of people felt and acted the same way that I did, such behavior would have large and likely irreparable effects on our climate and other environmental necessities.

Fear is also a great motivator in inflicting damage on others and thus on ourselves. Violence is often a desperate response that yields damage to both self and others. Those whom we fear and distance ourselves from often then become targets of our direct and projected violence. Were we able to practice connection and caring rather than fear, violence might well be averted.

One last cause of stupidity is overwhelm. We are constantly bombarded with information. It is impossible not to feel overwhelmed at times. In an effort to steel ourselves against any more information overload we withdraw and choose not to pay attention. There are so many things requiring our attention that are worthwhile. How do we best choose? My guess is that those pieces of information that fully honor our values (as opposed to our opinions) are the ones that require our attention. We must be thoughtful and deliberate in our choices. Information that both honors our feelings and challenges our ideas will help increase our wisdom.

Stupidity lives in everyone. It is not just a symptom of low intelligence. In fact, it is not related to intelligence at all. We’ve all seen very intelligent people behave stupidly. It is about awareness, caring and noticing one’s impact on oneself and others. We can do all of ourselves a favor by staying open and aware of our own acts of stupidity. Western society encourages stuporous behavior. We deserve better than this. Wake up and pay attention. Notice your impact and help others to notice theirs. With awareness we can then cultivate wisdom rather than stupidity.

What situations are likely to cause you to harm yourself and others?

What is your relationship with stupidity?

Where do you become stuporous and act stupidly?

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This entry was written by Judith Cohen, MCC, CPCC and posted on August 23, 2009 at 5:13 pm and filed under Social Sciences. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.

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