It’s practically guaranteed that now we have extra stupid people at the planet than ever ahead of. After all, we could be tempted to suppose; simply have a look at what number of of them disbelieve my politics. However this unprecedented stupidity is primarily, if no longer completely, a function of an unprecedentedly huge global popul. a.tion. The extra important matter has much less to do with quantity of stupidity than with its quality: of all of the bureaucracy it could take, which does probably the most damage? Robert Greene, creator of The 48 Rules of Power and The Rules of Human Nature, cope withes that question in the clip above from an interview with podforgeder Chris Williamson.
“What makes people stupid,” Greene explains, “is their certainty that they have got all of the solutions.” The fundamental thought might sound familiar, since we’ve previously featured right here on Open Culture the related phenomenon of the Dunning-Kruger impact. In some sense, stupid people who know they’re stupid aren’t actually stupid, or a minimum of no longer hurtfully so.
True to shape, Greene makes a classical reference: Athens’ leaders went into the Peloponnesian Warfare certain of victory, when it actually introduced concerning the finish of the Athenian golden age. “People who’re certain of items are very stupid,” he says, “and when they’ve power, they’re very, very dangerous,” in step withhaps extra so than the ones we’d name evil.
This brings to thoughts the oft-quoted principle referred to as Hanlon’s Razor: “Never characteristic to malice that which is adequately defined by way of stupidity.” However even in othersmart intelligent individuals, a 10dency towards premature certainty can induce that stupidity. Guesster, in Greene’s view, to cultivate what John Keats, impressed by way of Shakespeare, known as “negative capability”: the power to “grasp two ideas on your head on the identical time, two ideas that apparently contradict each and every other.” We would possibly consider, for example, inputtaining the guidelines of our aforemalestioned political enemies — no longer fully settle foring them, thoughts you, but in addition no longer fully settle foring our personal. It’s going to, a minimum of, prevent the onset of stupidity, a condition that’s transparently difficult to remedy.
Related content:
Why Incompetent People Suppose They’re Competent: The Dunning-Kruger Impact, Defined
Primarily based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and hugecasts on towns, language, and culture. His tasks come with the Substack newsletter Books on Towns and the e-book The Statemuch less Town: a Stroll thru Twenty first-Century Los Angeles. Follow him at the social webpaintings formerly referred to as Twitter at @colinmarshall.
