Believe in stupidity
Last night we rented a DVD documentary called Stupidity, made by Trailervision. I really liked it. With the recent US elections, there’s been a lot of talk about stupidity, morons, imbeciles etc., and this documentary covered them all.
The movie spent quite a bit of time exploring the definition of stupidity, to which very few people could come up with a definition, other than something like ‘people doing dumb stuff’.
But, the best definition for stupidity I've ever heard, was stated in this movie by James F. Welles: “I define stupidity as the learned corruption of learning”.
This led in to a part of the documentary sub-titled “Believe in stupidity”, covering the relationship between belief systems (e.g. organised religion) and stupidity. Here’s what narrator, Fred Napoli had to say:
“One of the few theories of stupidity to emerge in recent times, is the relationship between stupidity and belief systems. Basically, human beings don’t really know what’s going on. So as a defence mechanism they often construct rigid belief systems to help them navigate the world.”
Welles then went on to explain: “If you have a belief system that purports to explain the way the universe works and it keeps you from getting a better belief system, then in that sense religions can be very stupid.”
In other words, controlling the masses by indoctrination. And that is precisely why I don’t subscribe to any organised religion.
Welles explained further: “Because of the belief system, people process the information differentially. Meaning, if it is information that confirms the [belief system] they take it in. If it is information that challenges the belief system, they reject it. So if a person is involved in a course of action that is detrimental to his own best interests, he will not process the information that is indicating that, because they won’t learn.”
The bottom line is that the world has adopted a culture of stupidity, where stupidity is glamorised, attention spans are dwindling, and nobody wants the effort of having to think for themselves. Stupidity is now so wide-spread that stupid people, having been Frat boys at Yale and believing themselves to be highly intelligent, are becoming world leaders, because more stupid people want to leave the thinking to someone else. I believe this is because stupid people want elect a leader they can relate to. And so the vicious circle continues...
Its a very interesting movie, especially if you can look at it with an open mind. We all do stupid things sometimes, its just a matter of being able to recognise the stupidity and learn from it. But therein lies the real problem.
posted by Sarah @ 12:44 pm
7 comments
7 Comments:
Interesting. I haven't seen the film, but if I get a chance to see it I'll comment more directly. It doesn't have the most inspiring user rating on imdb, but that may not mean much.
While Welles's definition of stupidity is interesting, he may be trying to apply a new meaning to an old word. Reference.com's definition seems clearer and closer tied to common usage.
I assume that the Yale frat boys is a referencd to President Bush. Out of curiosity, do you believe that Bush is stupid in the sense of making poor decisions or in the sense of lacking in intelligence? And as a follow-up are you saying that the 51% of the US population that voted for him is stuipd? I mean that in the "lacking intelligence" sense of the word. I know that you think that keeping George Bush as President was a poor decision.
Stupidity was not a high budget movie, didn't get much publicity etc. I'd never heard of it until I saw it on the shelf at Blockbuster.
You're right in assuming I was talking about Bush. I don't think stupidity and intelligence are polar opposites. So, no I don't think he's stupid in the sense of being unintelligent. And, its not like he makes his own decisions anyway, right? And no, I don't think 51 % of Americans are unintelligent for voting for him.
If I go with my new favourite definition of stupidity being the learned corruption of learning, I think that Bush is stupid (among other reasons) because he can not or will not process the mounting evidence that indicates that he and his cronies made an undefendable decision in invading Iraq, and he can not or will not process that information because it interferes with what he has come to believe in. I hesitate to say he made a poorly thought out decision in invading Iraq, because I'm he sure he thought a lot about how he would benefit from the war. He is the man that said "I know how the world works" at (the second?) pre-election debate. That was an undeniably stupid thing to assert, but 51 % of Americans could relate to it!
Also I think you'll find that Welles definition of stupidity actually fits very well with the common useage of the term- it doesn't only apply to religious belief systems (which, I assume, is the way in which you read it).
Actually I didn't read Welles' definition as applying to religion or faith. I found the definition interesting, but I thought it ignored the "unintelligent" meaning. The two are related of course. When I rant that I'm dealing with stupid kids in the classroom, I often mean both that they are unintelligent and that they're not interested in learning. Of course often what when I'm upset about stupidity, they're really just too lazy to listen or learn. But stupid definately doesn't mean the same thing as lazy.
The reason I asked if you thought Bush & Bush voters were unintelligent is that I actually bump into people quite often who hold that point of view. They quite seriously believe that Bush has a sub-average IQ. I find that point of view irritating as it simply doesn't fit the facts. It's seems to be a mere dismisal of the man rather than having the wherewithal to address his ideas. Somewhat like Caroline Parish's unimaginative "coalition of idiots" comments. Just checking. :P
I don't think that stupid means the same thing as unintelligent, lazy, or uneducated, but I agree that stupid and unintelligent can be related:
Everybody, without exception, does or says things that are stupid at times. I think probably that less intelligent people would tend to do or say stupid things more often than more intelligent people, and that intelligent people would come to realise the stupidity in what they said or did, and learn from it.
Having said that, I strongly believe that intelligence is a trait that is assigned very arbitrarily, and it does not equate to top grades, PhD's (and I can say that with authority), or an Ivy League university.
You have a really cool Honda.
Oh, Andrew I'd like you to meet Erwin. Erwin is a good friend of mine. When you lent us your Civic over the summer, we gave Erwin a ride out to Main street for some gelato one night. Good times...
I would also like to say that Erwin is a very smart guy, although he likes to pretend not to be at times. Like that time when he had the blonde mullet and the wife-beater at New Year...
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