the basic laws of human stupidity by carlo cipolla

Thus in the following pages I will denote the fraction of stupid people within a population by the symbol å. The First Basic Law prevents me from attributing a specific numerical value to the fraction of stupid people within the total population: any numerical estimate would turn out to be an underestimate.

b) day after day, with unceasing monotony, one is harassed in one's activities by stupid individuals who appear suddenly and unexpectedly in the most inconvenient places and at the most improbable moments. No matter how high are one's estimates of human stupidity, one is repeatedly and recurrently startled by the fact that: a) people whom one had once judged rational and intelligent turn out to be unashamedly stupid. Closer scrutiny will however reveal its realistic veracity. At first, the statement sounds trivial, vague and horribly ungenerous. The first basic law of human stupidity asserts without ambiguity that: Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation. Cipolla’s Laws are also most stimulating for an analysis of the implications that the latter’s actions have on the broader society in terms of the relative gains or losses that they cause, and thus either adding to or detracting from the general welfare. I draw on Carlo Cipolla’s laws on human stupidity to unravel what would otherwise appear to be the obscure behaviour of several decision-makers. Once again, vested political interests are influencing the destiny of this area, resulting in new forms of inequalities, environmental degradation, competition among cities and further economic downturn. It expands on previous analysis on the economic policies for the South showing how the ‘new’ political debate is replicating past mistakes. This chapter addresses the Italian regional divide to show how ideologically biased economic policies have not only generated inequalities among cities but also adverse conditions that in the long term have affected the country as a whole.

The basic laws of human stupidity by carlo cipolla