If you aren’t too stupid to comprehend it, there’s a brilliant article by Professor Carlo M. Cipolla of the University of California in which he explains “The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity.”
Law No. 1: Everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
Law No. 2: The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person. Cipolla explains that “one is stupid in the same way one is red-haired; one belongs to the stupid set as one belongs to a blood group. A stupid man is born a stupid man by an act of Providence.”
Law No. 3: A stupid person is a person who caused losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses. This one is obvious: “Our daily life is mostly made of cases in which we lose money and/or time and/or energy and/or appetite, cheerfulness and good health because of the improbable action of some preposterous creature who has nothing to gain and indeed gains nothing from causing us embarrassment, difficulties or harm.”
Law No. 4: Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals.
Law No. 5: A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.
Read the entire thesis at
http://www.ecotopia.com/webpress/stupidity/