The reason there are poor and middle class republicans...

[liberal N proud]

Survival Of The Stupidest

Is stupidity rising? Are we witnessing an alarming proliferation of irrationality and an exuberance of ignorance?

Stupidity seems a concern to a growing group of scholars. Last month alone two arXiv papers (here and here) appeared that both refer to a 35 year old essay by the Italian economic historian Carlo Cipolla entitled "The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity". In this humorous yet thought-provocative treatise Cipolla warns against the power of stupidity. Three of Cipolla laws of stupidity I reproduce here. The first provides a definition for stupidity, and the latter two highlight the abundance and the effectiveness of stupidity:

"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."

"Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation."

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

The answer at the link: http://www.science20.com/hammock_physicist/survival_stupidest-77846

[NC_Nurse]

1. Idiocracy. We are getting there faster than we did in the movie.