By Andreas Weber, Head of #CrazyThoughts | Translation by GoogleTranslate — Original German Version
Does the ”Quadriga” of stupidity, ignorance, greed and defamation collapse our free world based on humanistic principles? Possible, but not desirable. Impossible if we counteract with reason and confidence. And so prevent the circle from squaring.
Stupidity as a social phenomenon is based less on a lack of knowledge; it runs through all classes and ages. Monty Python legend John Cleese sums it up in the video “John Cleese Considers Your Futile Comments” (published on February 17th, 2012, from min. 3:34). The core message: The problem with stupid people is that they are often too stupid to see for themselves that they are stupid. You even have to be relatively intelligent to recognize how stupid you are.
Seen in this way, stupidity is based on a lack of knowledge about oneself.
So some exposed figures from politics, business and society should never have to go through a ‘stupidity assessment‘. Especially not when psychology, philosophy, ethics are brought into play.
Because then it would also become clear that even hyper-narcissism is the least evil. On the contrary, in times of crisis, narcissists are the perfect directors because they are perfectly trained to achieve their goals best and fastest. A narcissist just needs the right job. And if it works, it works! You have to love this dude for that …
However, the serious problem of those infected with stupidity: in the course of a virus mutation they got infected as well with ignorance, greed and defamation! — Incidentally, this is also a general social phenomenon, across all classes and ages.
And this ‘Quadriga’ — whose special mix contains neutron-bomb-like effects — makes it extremely dangerous. No joke!
Also no joke: errors are expressly allowed! They are the remedy for ‘stupid’ decisions. This is the insight from “To be wrong is useful”, a bestseller by Henning Beck worth reading (3rd edition: 2018). Previously, in 2016, the theologian and psychiatrist Manfred Lütz published the book: “IRRE! / CRAZY! We treat the wrong people: Our problem is the normal.”
From a German perspective I strongly recommend both books as Easter reading! (Sorry, no idea if you’ll find translations into other languages.)
Why am I writing this? Because there is a risk of succumbing to the current illusion that the moment the COVID-19 infection curve flattens, everything must be done to quickly return to normal. And thus to raise the absurdity to the normal as the birth of stupidity, ignorance, greed and defamation.
We still have the #lockdown. In Germany like in many other countries. But open discussions and conversations are possible thanks to digital communication channels.
#Rethink #confidence #SocialCulture #EasterForThinking
Reading tip
For all #PrintLovers who do not want to deal with ‘crazy’ topics, but prefer to deal with their own #foolishness (Haha!), I recommend reading my ad hoc report “Print and the crisis”, published on #Medium.
