The First Basic Law of Human Stupidity
The First Basic Law of Human Stupidity asserts without ambiguity that – Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
Cultural trends now fashionable in the West favor an egalitarian approach to life. Men are not equal, that some are stupid and others are not, and that the difference is determined by nature and not by cultural forces or factors.
The Second Basic Law of Human Stupidity
I firmly believe that stupidity is an indiscriminate privilege of all human groups and is uniformly distributed according to a constant proportion.
The Second Basic Law of Human Stupidity – The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
The Third (and Golden) Basic Law of Human Stupidity
Each one of us has a current balance with everybody else. From action or inaction each one of us derives a gain or a loss and at the same time one causes a gain or a loss to someone else.
The Third Basic Law assumes, although it does not state it explicitly, that human beings fall into four basic categories: the helpless, the intelligent, the bandit and the stupid.
The Third Basic Law of Human 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.
We all recollect occasions in which a fellow took an action which resulted in his gain and in our loss: we had to deal with a bandit. We also recollect cases in which a fellow took an action which resulted in his loss and in our gain: we had to deal with a helpless person. We can recollect cases in which a fellow took an action by which both parties gained: he was intelligent.
Stupidity and Power
The damaging potential of the stupid person depends on two major factors. First of all, it depends on the genetic factor. The second factor which determines the potential of a stupid person is related to the position of power and consequence which he occupies in society.
Class and caste were the social arrangements which favored the steady supply of stupid people to positions of power in most societies of the pre-industrial world. Religion was another contributing factor. In the modern industrial world class and caste are banished both as words and as concepts and religion is fading away. But in lieu of class and caste we have political parties and bureaucracy and in lieu of religion we have democracy.
The Fourth Basic Law of Human Stupidity
The Fourth Basic Law of Human Stupidity which states that: 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 infallibly turns out to be a costly mistake.
The Fifth Basic Law of Human Stupidity
The Fifth Basic Law of Human Stupidity states that – a stupid person is the most dangerous type of person. The corollary of the Law is that – a stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit.
After the action of a perfect bandit, the bandit has a plus on his account which plus is exactly equivalent to the minus he has caused to another person. The society as a whole is neither better nor worse off.
When stupid people are at work, the story is totally different. Stupid people cause losses to other people with no counterpart of gains on their own account. Thus, the society as a whole is impoverished.
