On Stupidity

[georged]

In my experience it's been self-evident that individuals by themselves typically exhibit more common sense than some of the things society as a whole accepts as true and reasonable. I think that's the point.

What I've noticed over the years is that often an individual will believe or accept something that is widely believed without ever really thinking about it...some current "thing"...go along to get along. But when questioned and made to actually think about it they tend to suddenly see it differently...but not always.

The group mind tends to be less than the sum of its parts, imo.

How did H. sapiens prevail?

They were slow and weak, didn't have big claws or big teeth, couldn't climb or burrow or fly, weren't venomous, nothing like that. They weren't special in any way.

Except for two things: permanently attached manual manipulators on articulated stalks, and high speed/large capacity CPUs.

And they quickly learned to work in groups.

A single human on its own was a merely a squirmy, tasty snack; a pack of them could dispatch the largest and fiercest land animals on Earth and eat them.

How, exactly, did that work? How did the pack operate to be so effective?

Through ruthlessness, deception, treachery, deceit, greed, acquisitiveness, brutality, ruthlessness, vindictiveness, aggression, ambition, selfishness, organization, manipulation, and so on.

Since day one, and every day for millions of years thereafter, those behaviors were the ones that Mother Nature rewarded. (The Second Law of Thermodynamics is not sentimental.)

What was NOT rewarded was getting kicked out of the group. That meant effectively instantaneous death.

Result? People agree with their tribe as a reflex. They don't consider options and they don't try to change minds. They simply Go With What The Group Says.

The fact that recently (in historical terms) assorted inventions and tools converged in combinatorial ways that caused layered, complex societies with vast, sophisticated infrastructures to spring into existence---and that behavioral trait was no longer necessary to survive---means nothing. The tribal urge is part of human DNA. It is hardwired.

 

[sardonicus87]

How did H. sapiens prevail?

They were slow and weak, didn't have big claws or big teeth, couldn't climb or burrow or fly, weren't venomous, nothing like that. They weren't special in any way.

Except for two things: permanently attached manual manipulators on articulated stalks, and high speed/large capacity CPUs.

And they quickly learned to work in groups.

A single human on its own was a merely a squirmy, tasty snack; a pack of them could dispatch the largest and fiercest land animals on Earth and eat them.

How, exactly, did that work? How did the pack operate to be so effective?

Through ruthlessness, deception, treachery, deceit, greed, acquisitiveness, brutality, ruthlessness, vindictiveness, aggression, ambition, selfishness, organization, manipulation, and so on.

Since day one, and every day for millions of years thereafter, those behaviors were the ones that Mother Nature rewarded. (The Second Law of Thermodynamics is not sentimental.)

What was NOT rewarded was getting kicked out of the group. That meant effectively instantaneous death.

Result? People agree with their tribe as a reflex. They don't consider options and they don't try to change minds. They simply Go With What The Group Says.

The fact that recently (in historical terms) assorted inventions and tools converged in combinatorial ways that caused layered, complex societies with vast, sophisticated infrastructures to spring into existence---and that behavioral trait was no longer necessary to survive---means nothing. The tribal urge is part of human DNA. It is hardwired.

Evolution, whether biological or psychological, is slow. Our technological evolution long outpaced our psychological evolution.

The human brain is essentially an Atari 2600 trying to run Skyrim. It's absolutely no wonder stupidity and tribalism is so rife.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Yet never stupid enough to eat their own young . . . . damn Nature!

 

[Sam Gamgee]

I find the 90% porn web traffic thing hard to believe. Lots of porn usage going on? Absolutely. But every Karen and busybody old lady now is also glued to a smartphone, and most of them aren't looking at porn.

I've read Bonhoeffer's "Life Together" and found him very powerful. I've also heard a few lectures about his life and he was no lightweight. He came from a family of extremely intelligent people. Where some siblings back then might sit around a play a game of checkers, he and his would play Mozart pieces on their violins. He moved to NYC and served in ghetto churches and was torn about going back to Germany to get involved in the resistance, even many of his family and friends urged him not to do it. He was led out naked to the gallows and hanged, just days before his camp was to be liberated. He had skin in the game and not just an opinion. I admire that.

I'm a firm believer in Solomon's idea that there is nothing new under the sun. What smartphones and technology have done is provide improved means to the same ends, all fueled by human folly which has always been there.