Idiocy Map

Carlo Cipolla divided human stupidity into two cartesian coordinates of impact:

• Those that harm / benefit themselves
• Those that harm / benefit others

The quadrants give four types of stupidity:

• Stupid people (harm to self and others)
• Helpless people, altruists (harm to self, benefit to others)
• Intelligent people (reciprocal benefits)
• Bandits (benefit to self, harm to others)

Further, Darren Smith adds a dimension of consciousness to determine the level of stupidity.

In addition, we are adding the dimension of intention to be considered in quantitative determination of stupidity, thus adding the “axis of evil” to the picture. As such, accidental detriment to others is more akin to naivete, whereas intentional harm is the embodiment of evil.

How to deal with idiots

• The only good thing about stupidity is that one can refuse to participate.
• The law of reciprocity inherent in intelligent people demands that when confronted with stupid individuals one immediately secrets adequate quantities of adrenaline and builds up defenses.
• Instead of considering the welfare of the stupid individual let us consider the welfare of the collective society.

Progressive practice for living with stupidity

• meditate on non-controllability of life
• meditate on unsatisfactoriness of life
• meditate on non-acceptance (non-absorbance) of idiotic energy
• meditate on compassionate positive action
• meditate on assertive action
• stepwise practice coexistence with various stages of stupidity, e.g. starting with wiggling, yelling, noises, loud talking, toward distraction, obstruction, disorder, unwillingness to understand, helplessness, dependency, irrationality, talk-no-walk, self-harm, trolling, bullying, violence, malevolence

References

[1] The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. Carlo Cipolla. 1976. https://web.archive.org/web/20130216132858/http://www.cantrip.org/stupidity.html

[2] The Eight Degrees of Ignorance and Stupidity. Darren Smith. 2022. https://jonathanturley.org/2022/01/08/the-eight-degrees-of-ignorance-and-stupidity/

[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupidity