On stupidity

[TnT]

While a formulation like this can be fun, the really scary part is that one does not know for sure if one's own ideas are as intelligent as one assumes they are, or if they are simply stupid. When we read this, we assume ourselves to be above the hoi polloi and among the elite intelligentsia.

To validate this scary idea is to merely look around and read some history and contemplate the many apparently intelligent folks who have been in charge of important events, and how they screwed the pooch, sometimes again and again in the face of obvious headwinds.

The truly stupid, if the term is defined to be those who simply have a deficit of mental voltage, are probably better classified with the helpless. Or the more vulnerable. My own observations suggest that everyone above some arbitrary voltage, has intelligence - just different KINDS of intelligence. Our friend Donald Trump, for example, is remarkably talented in "bullshit." After watching him closely for four years, I haven't seen any other type of intelligence.

Bottom line for me is that a formulation like this has a touch of sanctimony - that is, WE can all chuckle and look down on those poor souls who lack this gift that we are generously endowed with.