March 2008 - Colin McGinn

Now that really is a taboo word. You must never call anyone stupid! But aren’t some people just plain stupid? And isn’t stupidity the source of much of the world’s misery? I’d like to see a “Stupidity Science” movement in which the phenomenon is studied and taxonomized and explained–and remedied. I am certainly not a relativist about stupidity; I think stupidity is an objective trait. Maybe we all all stupid sometimes–but some people are stupid a lot of the time. Stupidity, as I mean it here, refers especially to the opinions and utterances of people who should know better. As the old saying goes: “It would only take a minute’s thought…but thought is a difficult thing and a minute is a long time.” In the end, of course, stupidity is about character, not IQ.

I was surprised the other day to discover that the “Founding Fathers” (silly phrase), especially John Adams, were quite opposed to democratic government, deeming it mob rule. The Constitution was mainly designed to protect individual rights from any form of tyranny, including majority rule. The reason was the stupidity and selfishness of the average person. This set me to wondering how much of the present state of politics and culture in the USA is the result of misguided democracy. Successful democracy depends upon an adequately educated electorate, unprejudiced and altruistic: but these conditions are not always satisfied by the voters out there. In fact, there is no requirement in the US political system for a president to have even a minimum of education, or even to be able to read and write. Maybe if recognized experts, unelected, were given some political power, the current ills might be mitigated.