It’s basic
If stupidity drives you up the wall, this is a soothing treatise for you
The last few weeks have been trying for the world, not least because of the stupidity of certain politicians. Stupid people are ubiquitous and their antics will haunt humanity till the end of time. But what drives stupidity, especially in the social, political and economic spheres? Carlo M. Cipolla’s slim book, The Basic Laws Of Stupidity (Penguin Random House, ₹299), attempts to theorize this priceless question. The economic historian outlines five laws that govern stupid behaviour—posited with as much formality as the Newtonian laws of physics that govern the universe. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb points out in the foreword, the reader is left wondering if the whole book is a satire or brilliant scholarship.
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FIRST PUBLISHED24.04.2020 | 11:08 AM IST
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