A recent article in The Guardian referred to a 2006 “dystopian science fiction comedy”, called Idiocracy, which ranks 6.6 on IMDb. Back then, I thought that its title was kind of funny. More and more, I’m wondering if this title is reflecting a part of our reality. At times, it feels that people’s beliefs are moving from extreme to absurd. Especially in Western countries, pragmatism is losing from (blind) ideology (my blogs).
That same Guardian article also refers to “our era of stupidity“. I’ve written several blogs about human stupidity in 2021. That topic was (probably) even the reason that Google Blogspot suddenly started deleting several of my blogs – similarly as Facebook did in 2020 (my May 19 blog). As a precaution, I’ve created my own (ie, this) site and transferred all my blogs.
I doubt that stupidity is time related or time restricted. Hence, an (emerging) idiocracy may be more likely than an “era of stupidity“.
For centuries, people have believed that Knowledge equals Power (eg, Imam Ali, Francis Bacon, Michel Foucault). This concept is also known as dualism (my blogs). Slowly, we are heading for a century of monism (my blogs), in which Knowledge and Love are subject to Power. Perhaps, a failure of monism may then bring us back to trialism, a situation in which Love, Knowledge & Power (my blogs) are all equal.
Does Power automatically bring stupidity?
A 2012 Forbes article, mentioning a forthcoming study in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, states that there is indeed a connection between power and stupidity. Most likely, the Forbes article relates to this 2012 study: Power and overconfident decision-making. Some study highlights:
► We find that power leads to overconfidence in the accuracy of one’s knowledge.
Highlights from Power and overconfident decision-making
► Power-induced overconfidence leads power holders to underperform on accuracy tasks.
► Sense of power mediates the relationship between power and overconfidence.
A 2021 Canadian PressProgress article, Why Powerful People Do Stupid Things, refers to a 2013 study: The blind leading: Power reduces awareness of constraints. A quote from that 2021 article:
“When we perceive that we have more power than others through title, social status, or both, our brains allow us to feel less constrained by social norms, according to a 2013 study. This results in us downplaying risks or being less constrained while taking them.”
Press Progress: Why Powerful People Do Stupid Things
The above two articles are theoretical. Let’s take a look at a 2013 Real Leaders article: Being Strong Can Make You Stupid! The article is written by Will Marré, “the CEO of the REALeadership Alliance and co-founder and former president of the Covey Leadership Center”. A quote from Will Marré’s 2013 article:
“Confidence is great. But too much of it, I’ve found, is arrogance. And arrogance is repellent. In fact, arrogance makes you stupid. When you are really, really sure of yourself, you simply miss seeing the truth about things that matter. So what’s the answer to being so confident that I fall into arrogance? Well it’s not being less confident. It’s being more humble. [] Confidence balanced with humility can be a powerful strength.”
So, the chain of events is like this:
– power makes you confident,
– confidence may lead to arrogance,
– arrogance makes you stupid.
Hence, power will cause stupidity in the absence of confident humility (my blogs).
“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.” A quote by American stand-up comedian George Carlin (1937-2008).
Stupidity isn’t a virus, But it sure is spreading like one!
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Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
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