Last week’s blogs gave several reasons for human stupidity: (lack of) curiosity, complacency, monism / Power, arrogance & ignorance, and (lack of) morality. I considered writing a blog on narrow mindedness as yet another reason for human stupidity. Then a thought struck me: what do all of these reasons have in common? The answer is Beliefs (my blogs).
There are three collective development stages for life-forms in nature: Needs (all life-forms need food, shelter, water), Wants (all humans and some animals use tools to get what they want), and Beliefs (only humans). There is a fourth though individual development stage: Awakening (only some humans). Also see my blogs on Needs, Wants & Beliefs and Awakening.
For a long time, I have wondered why Awakening is not a collective development stage for humans. I have mentioned a few explanations in my blogs:
- the Strauss-Howe generational cycle (my March 2018 blog);
- the Great Filter in civilizations (my July 2018 blog);
- the ideology vs pragmatism divide (my 2020 blog);
- the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom (DIKW) model (my 2021 blog);
- but unfortunately
- the infinity of human stupidity (quote by Einstein) might be a more realistic cause.
Moreover, human stupidity would fit the problem-solving principle of Occam’s razor: “the simplest explanation is usually the right one” (my 2018 blog).
The fact that I did identify a 4th development stage offers hope. The individual development stage of Awakening is similar to the final stage of Abraham Maslow‘s model of the hierarchy of needs (ie, transcendence). Hence, it has the potential of becoming a collective development stage.
Again, it strikes me that the blueprint of life and nature has a bias for complexity: from Needs to Wants to Beliefs to Awakening. All life-forms in Needs would have been much simpler.
I think, feel and believe (sic!) that human stupidity is the collateral damage of having beliefs.
A quote by Buddha Siddhartha Gautama Shakyamuni (c. 5th to 4th century BCE), “a philosopher, mendicant, meditator, spiritual teacher, and religious leader who lived in Ancient India”:
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
Believe in Nothing (2000) by Nevermore
artists, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise
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