The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

October 12, 2020
Stupidity is “one of the most powerful dark forces that hinder the growth of human welfare and happiness,” according to this tongue-in-cheek treatise originally published in a 1976 private edition. Cipolla (1922–2000), a professor of economic history at UC Berkeley, argues that, of the four types of human beings (”the helpless, the intelligent, the bandit, and the stupid”), a stupid person is the most dangerous to society because he “causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.” Though every group has the same percentage of stupid people, their actual numbers are always underestimated, Cipolla posits. Previously, class, caste, and religion guaranteed that stupid people rose to power, but nowadays general elections achieve the same ends by offering stupid voters “a magnificent opportunity to harm everybody else without gaining anything from their action.” In countries on the decline, Cipolla writes, “bandits with overtones of stupidity” proliferate in the corridors of power, while the rest of the population sees an “alarming growth in the number of helpless individuals.” Cipolla never drops his arch, academic tone to reveal his political views, but progressive readers looking for parallels to the Trump era will find plenty in this subtly lacerating account.