Five Laws of Human Stupidity (1976)

This is a terrible view of humankind, society and the people around you. What is "stupidity" other than a concept vague enough that you can just throw it at anybody to, in part, immediately raise yourself to some level of superiority, and essentially defame without actually having to argue anything? Obviously they are stupid, and since you realize that, you are obviously not, so what's there to argue, right? Human intelligence, if that's what "stupidity" is supposed to be about…

I come across this maybe once a year while browsing the internet, and I'm always impressed. The author's ability to get just the right mix of resigned dry wit so he doesn't come across as cocky or a jerk or a defeatist... it's rather incredible. There's gems in there, too - > 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…

This was spot-on, especially the "always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation" part.

This article comes from Whole Earth Review (Spring 1987, pp 2-7), but the original idea seems to have originated in 1976: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_M._Cipolla#The_Basic_Law...