Human Stupidity

Few books have left me feeling as empty as I felt at the end of Cat’s Cradle. Here I was trying to find meaning in his words, trying to understand what he wants his readers to understand, but after I read the last word I was left grasping. Human stupidity is to blame. We are the most intelligent race on the planet and yet we are still stupid as all hell. I heard about an interesting Italian economist named Carlo Cipolla. He stood out to me because he wrote a two-part essay, the second part of which was titled, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. I believe the essay was originally meant as somewhat of a joke among his close friends, but it certainly is hard to argue with when studied closely. In the essay he explains his five laws of human stupidity, the third being my favorite. It states that, “A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of people while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring loss”. In his definition of stupidity it does not matter if you can take thirteen percent of twenty-four or spell “intelligent”, it only takes into account whether a person has caused loss to another person or group while deriving no gain. Science, as perceived by most of society, is an intelligent endeavor. So why does science have such a great ability to wreck havoc upon the world? It is because science usually only factors in who or what could be gained, not who or what could be lost. I think this is what Vonnegut is getting at. He as a scientist knows the miraculous accomplishments it is capable of, but he also realizes that human stupidity is uncontrollable and ever prevailing. 

As previously stated I was in a strange mood after finishing Cat's Cradle so I grabbed a beer and made a song. I split the song into three parts: the science vs. religion theme, the way the world would sound if ice-nine was unleashed upon it, and what was going through Bokonon's mind when he thumbed his nose at God.