This is great :) I believe that understanding how stupidity often runs parallel to close-mindedness could significantly reduce the occurrence of the former. No matter how reasonable we are, if we become entrenched in a fixed worldview, we’ll end up sacrificing reason to a fossilised belief system. From this point of view, it becomes clear that stupidity isn’t limited to any one group - it finds representation across disciplines, institutions, ideologies, and doctrines, - literally anywhere rigid thinking can take root.
I know I know people say “ Who Are You To Judge” I always answer … I know the Currency of Stupid when I see It because I have been on Both Sides of the Coin
Very enlightening and insightful and certainly explains a lot about the recent Canadian general election, but also many national elections world-wide; the common thread is an electorate continuing to vote for the same leaders no matter how bad they have revealed themselves to be; and that stupidity extends to placing faith in ideologies and political ideas that have always been known to be destructive; yes, we are surrounded by all kinds of stupidity since the dawn of our species; Bonhoeffer called the "collective stupidity" of the masses a "human defect" that resisted openness to reason or facts and with an incapacity to use critical thinking in decision making; "the inner liberation of man begins by living responsibly before God; only then may stupidity be overcome."(Bonhoeffer)
This essay illuminates a philosophical/spiritual issue I’ve been grappling with.
I’ve recently had to face off and come to terms with the lack of intellectual capacity in people. Yet, I reason: well, they are this way because of this or that; they should be given the benefit of the doubt, etc.
I believe in the inherent goodness of humans, give people a chance - sometimes too many - and try not to use labels. In other words, calling someone “stupid” immediately creates a wall between us and enforces division.
The rulers engineer with pure evil. Which ones are also stupid is of no consequence to us. The results are the same and they must all be removed. They wish to cull the herd, among other evil things. They do it openly now, and there is no denying it.
"Don't cook up stupidity-based excuses when understanding that evil is evil is the point."
Really interesting. Thanks again. I will be more aware of what it means to be an intelligent person. I don't like to call people stupid but this helps clarify why I often do. I was listening to someone the other day and just looked at them as I realized that he might just be plain stupid. I agree it is best to be more aware of wasting time on stupidity. I appreciate your essays!!
It’s about time someone said something. They have taken over the USA.
The reality is that the occupants of most C-suites and most government regulators in the USA were below average students who went to state universities, and they now have all of the power they need to abuse those of us who are intelligent and have backbones into submission simply for daring to disagree with them.
I was repeatedly harassed, arrested and jailed by their thugs with badges for challenging their authority of stupidity in California, which is why I am now living in Mexico looking forward to watching the USA fall apart…
Yep, the C suite types and power pros are the real losers. They live entirely on external validation and image, and even the image they revere sucks. Such dweebs. They jump all the hoops and drink themselves stupid to numb the shame and their parents prop them up and baby them. They throw away their insides and make their deal with the devil. THEN they get into the real world and run into people who are 100% internal validation. We are happier, we are more interesting, we are stronger, we are far more intelligent. We see the silliness in what they’ve done. We see through them, and they are HORRIFIED and INCANDESCENT with rage about it.
“But but but I was promised the top of the hierarchy and all the power!11”
Yes well, your rulers lie to you, child. Who knew that you could just look at the workforce pyramid and go “Eh, no thx”? Not that it’s easy. It’s just better.
It’s fun to challenge the suits in front of their departments and watch them go full fish face. Any “The sky is blue” sort of statement works just fine.
More and more individuals are breaking out of the workforce and creating their own businesses. Soon enough, there will be a parallel everything and govt can rot away entirely, the world ‘round. The rulers are panicking and they should be. Their days are numbered.
Pretty short sighted analysis IMHO. What you described as stupid people would probably run rings around you in basic life survival functions. If you were to describe most people as not showing an interest in politics, human governance, or historical realities ( corruption of societies ) your supposition would appear reasonable. Yep, society still gets destroyed, first one to build a campfire wins.
The Community Organizer Paula Ximena Rojas designed a caricature of the intelligent intellectual, as stick figure with a very big head , and very little hands. The simple meme reminds us that as teachers, political scientists, philosophers , or as deep thinkers, the quest is to act, and not to sit around doing nothing with our itty bitty hands! Let’s get out there and buy change our world!!!
I understand the truth in this message—fully, reluctantly, and with a deep sense of its urgency. It’s clear that what we call stupidity often reveals itself as unconscious participation in destruction. But posts like this, while accurate, can sometimes reinforce the very helplessness they seek to expose if they aren’t followed by constructive vision. The real solution is in cultivating self-awareness, critical humility, creative will, communal intelligence, and psycho-spiritual resilience. If we’re to evolve, we must stop pointing at the rot and begin composting it—intentionally, compassionately, and strategically.
Every true paradigm shift begins with a choice—one’s own decision to shift state, claim authorship, and embody a higher mode of being. I invite readers to see through the eyes of the so-called “stupid”—to ask what trauma, conditioning, neglect, genetic limits, social engineering, or lack of nurturing shaped their cognitive cage. Not to excuse, but to understand the root—and only then, transform it.
Thank you, Academy of Ideas. I deeply appreciate your work. I’m always learning here.
> “Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.”
Can't call it legitimate. We were all duped. Excepting the stupid, who likely aren't capable of understanding it, every Cdn need watch "Canada The Illusion."
This is great :) I believe that understanding how stupidity often runs parallel to close-mindedness could significantly reduce the occurrence of the former. No matter how reasonable we are, if we become entrenched in a fixed worldview, we’ll end up sacrificing reason to a fossilised belief system. From this point of view, it becomes clear that stupidity isn’t limited to any one group - it finds representation across disciplines, institutions, ideologies, and doctrines, - literally anywhere rigid thinking can take root.
Wow! a very timely article. Well done.
Iain McGilchrist wrote about how left hemisphere bias leads to ignorance.
I call those afflicted with that as "smart dumb" like depicted here.
https://robc137.substack.com/p/left-brain-vs-whole-brain-in-battlestar
With left brain bias, one believes things that do not match reality. Their bullshit detector is lacking.
https://robc137.substack.com/p/allergic-to-bullshit
I know I know people say “ Who Are You To Judge” I always answer … I know the Currency of Stupid when I see It because I have been on Both Sides of the Coin
Very enlightening and insightful and certainly explains a lot about the recent Canadian general election, but also many national elections world-wide; the common thread is an electorate continuing to vote for the same leaders no matter how bad they have revealed themselves to be; and that stupidity extends to placing faith in ideologies and political ideas that have always been known to be destructive; yes, we are surrounded by all kinds of stupidity since the dawn of our species; Bonhoeffer called the "collective stupidity" of the masses a "human defect" that resisted openness to reason or facts and with an incapacity to use critical thinking in decision making; "the inner liberation of man begins by living responsibly before God; only then may stupidity be overcome."(Bonhoeffer)
This essay illuminates a philosophical/spiritual issue I’ve been grappling with.
I’ve recently had to face off and come to terms with the lack of intellectual capacity in people. Yet, I reason: well, they are this way because of this or that; they should be given the benefit of the doubt, etc.
I believe in the inherent goodness of humans, give people a chance - sometimes too many - and try not to use labels. In other words, calling someone “stupid” immediately creates a wall between us and enforces division.
My empathy is my blind spot. The work continues…
The rulers engineer with pure evil. Which ones are also stupid is of no consequence to us. The results are the same and they must all be removed. They wish to cull the herd, among other evil things. They do it openly now, and there is no denying it.
"Don't cook up stupidity-based excuses when understanding that evil is evil is the point."
-The Long Game's Razor
Really interesting. Thanks again. I will be more aware of what it means to be an intelligent person. I don't like to call people stupid but this helps clarify why I often do. I was listening to someone the other day and just looked at them as I realized that he might just be plain stupid. I agree it is best to be more aware of wasting time on stupidity. I appreciate your essays!!
It’s about time someone said something. They have taken over the USA.
The reality is that the occupants of most C-suites and most government regulators in the USA were below average students who went to state universities, and they now have all of the power they need to abuse those of us who are intelligent and have backbones into submission simply for daring to disagree with them.
I was repeatedly harassed, arrested and jailed by their thugs with badges for challenging their authority of stupidity in California, which is why I am now living in Mexico looking forward to watching the USA fall apart…
Yep, the C suite types and power pros are the real losers. They live entirely on external validation and image, and even the image they revere sucks. Such dweebs. They jump all the hoops and drink themselves stupid to numb the shame and their parents prop them up and baby them. They throw away their insides and make their deal with the devil. THEN they get into the real world and run into people who are 100% internal validation. We are happier, we are more interesting, we are stronger, we are far more intelligent. We see the silliness in what they’ve done. We see through them, and they are HORRIFIED and INCANDESCENT with rage about it.
“But but but I was promised the top of the hierarchy and all the power!11”
Yes well, your rulers lie to you, child. Who knew that you could just look at the workforce pyramid and go “Eh, no thx”? Not that it’s easy. It’s just better.
It’s fun to challenge the suits in front of their departments and watch them go full fish face. Any “The sky is blue” sort of statement works just fine.
More and more individuals are breaking out of the workforce and creating their own businesses. Soon enough, there will be a parallel everything and govt can rot away entirely, the world ‘round. The rulers are panicking and they should be. Their days are numbered.
Pretty short sighted analysis IMHO. What you described as stupid people would probably run rings around you in basic life survival functions. If you were to describe most people as not showing an interest in politics, human governance, or historical realities ( corruption of societies ) your supposition would appear reasonable. Yep, society still gets destroyed, first one to build a campfire wins.
The Community Organizer Paula Ximena Rojas designed a caricature of the intelligent intellectual, as stick figure with a very big head , and very little hands. The simple meme reminds us that as teachers, political scientists, philosophers , or as deep thinkers, the quest is to act, and not to sit around doing nothing with our itty bitty hands! Let’s get out there and buy change our world!!!
I understand the truth in this message—fully, reluctantly, and with a deep sense of its urgency. It’s clear that what we call stupidity often reveals itself as unconscious participation in destruction. But posts like this, while accurate, can sometimes reinforce the very helplessness they seek to expose if they aren’t followed by constructive vision. The real solution is in cultivating self-awareness, critical humility, creative will, communal intelligence, and psycho-spiritual resilience. If we’re to evolve, we must stop pointing at the rot and begin composting it—intentionally, compassionately, and strategically.
Every true paradigm shift begins with a choice—one’s own decision to shift state, claim authorship, and embody a higher mode of being. I invite readers to see through the eyes of the so-called “stupid”—to ask what trauma, conditioning, neglect, genetic limits, social engineering, or lack of nurturing shaped their cognitive cage. Not to excuse, but to understand the root—and only then, transform it.
Thank you, Academy of Ideas. I deeply appreciate your work. I’m always learning here.
> “Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.”
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Not for Everyone.
But maybe for you and your Contrarian, Assymetric and Rebel patrons?
Hello AoI,
I hope this finds you in a rare pocket of stillness.
We hold deep respect for what you've built here—and for how.
We’ve just opened the door to something we’ve been quietly handcrafting for years.
Not for mass markets. Not for scale. But for memory and reflection.
Not designed to perform. Designed to endure.
It’s called The Silent Treasury.
A sanctuary where truth, judgment, and consciousness are kept like firewood—dry, sacred, and meant for long winters.
Where trust, vision, patience, and stewardship are treated as capital—more rare, perhaps, than liquidity itself.
The 3 inaugural pieces speak to quiet truths we've long engaged with:
1. The Hidden Costs of Clarity Culture — for long term, irreversible decisions
2. Why Judgment, ‘Signal’, and Trust Migrate Toward Niche Information Sanctuaries
3. Why many modern investment ecosystems (PE, VC, Hedge, ALT, spac, rollups) fracture before they root
These are not short, nor designed for virality.
They are multi-sensory, slow experiences—built to last.
If this speaks to something you've always felt but rarely seen expressed,
perhaps these works belong in your world.
One publication link is enclosed, should you choose to start experiencing.
https://helloin.substack.com/p/from-brightness-to-blindness-the?r=5i8pez
Warmly,
The Silent Treasury
As a miscreant teen I came to the conclusion that 80%of all people are sheep,ie stupid. I am now 75 and realize I was mistaken its 90%.
'canada' is a perfect example of 'a country which is moving downhill'... assuming we even call it a legitimate country, whatever that means.
Can't call it legitimate. We were all duped. Excepting the stupid, who likely aren't capable of understanding it, every Cdn need watch "Canada The Illusion."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wHj2vucj4o
True, that's what I meant, there is no real country, government, its all smoke and mirrors
Including "God".