It’s practically guaranteed that we now have extra stupid people on the planet than ever earlier than. After all, we may be tempted to suppose; simply take a look at what number of of them disagree with my politics. However this unprecedented stupidity is primarily, if not completely, a function of an unprecedentedly giant global population. The extra important matter has much less to do with quantity of stupidity than with its quality: of all of the kinds it might take, which does probably the most damage? Robert Greene, writer of The 48 Laws of Power and The Laws of Human Nature, handlees that question in the clip above from an interview with podcaster Chris Williamson.
“What makes people stupid,” Greene explains, “is their certainty that they’ve all of the solutions.” The fundamental concept could sound familiar, since we’ve previously featured right here on Open Culture the related phenomenon of the Dunning-Kruger effect. In some sense, stupid people who know they’re stupid aren’t actually stupid, or at the very least not hurtfully so.
True to type, Greene makes a classical reference: Athens’ leaders went into the Peloponnesian War certain of victory, when it actually introduced in regards to the finish of the Athenian golden age. “People who’re certain of issues are very stupid,” he says, “and once they have power, they’re very, very dangerous,” perhaps extra so than these we might name evil.
This brings to thoughts the oft-quoted principle referred to as Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately defined by stupidity.” However even in othersmart intelligent individuals, a tendency towards premature certainty can induce that stupidity. Guesster, in Greene’s view, to cultivate what John Keats, impressed by Shakespeare, referred to as “negative capability”: the power to “maintain two ideas in your head on the similar time, two ideas that apparently contradict every other.” We would consider, for example, entertaining the concepts of our aforemalestioned political enemies — not fully settle foring them, thoughts you, but in addition not fully settle foring our personal. It could, at the very least, prevent the onset of stupidity, a condition that’s clearly difficult to remedy.
Related content:
Why Incompetent People Think They’re Competent: The Dunning-Kruger Effect, Explained
Primarily based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His tasks embrace the Substack newsletter Books on Cities and the e-book The Statemuch less Metropolis: a Stroll by way of Twenty first-Century Los Angeles. Follow him on the social internetwork formerly referred to as Twitter at @colinmarshall.