By Morf Morford, Tacoma Daily Index

I grew up in an ancient analog era, when the internet and global, immediate and largely free access and communication was just a dream some of us had.

Some of us had a vision of an era where arguments would become nonexistent because reliable and authoritative information would be at everyone’s finger tips.

The internet, and access to it, would be the great equalizer where everyone’s voice could be heard, every idea and belief could flourish with its own format and forum – and truth would, by necessity, prevail.

To put it mildly, our idealism superseded our consideration of unintended (or maybe even intended) consequences.

I have not come to a conclusion about whether the internet is evil, or even negative, or if any tool, from screwdrivers to literacy to weapons large and small, is, in the hands of humans, almost by definition self-destructive if not catastrophic.

We have had prophets and critics (religious or secular) who for years (or decades, or centuries) have warned us about ourselves with too much power.

I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.- The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan, 1995

There’s an old saying – “We are the people we’ve been waiting for” but now we seem to be living in a world with higher stakes and more noise. And more anger. A better, more updated saying might be “We are the people our parents warned us about”.

It’s not necessarily evil or even lack of information. It seems to be something greater, deeper and more ingrained in our psyches and institutions.

There are hints of this in our everyday conversations. When do we say, for example, “What could go wrong?”

When I hear that phrase, it tends to be when the negative effects far outweigh any promising possibilities of any action – and those negative effects seem stunningly obvious. To some at least. In other words, it is NOT a vote of confidence – except in the likelihood of disaster far beyond the scope of any original intentions.

The problem with any human invention from fentanyl to AR-15s is not necessarily malice or even incompetence, but, in most cases from a certainty that OUR use of any give tool or right, is justifiable while other people’s use of it is, at best questionable, and at worst, a personal threat.

Doh!

It would also be easy to make the argument that it is our stupidity that makes us human. What better, after all, separates us from all of the other mammals? I wish I could say it was our wisdom and capacity for cooperative construction of civilizations.

But a glance at history, or even current headlines, makes an even stronger – and more convincing case for human foolishness, wishful thinking and deliberate destruction of civilizations than anything else.

The film “Forrest Gump” popularized the saying, “Stupid is as stupid does.” And it is true. But it is equally true that plumbing is what plumbing does. Or cooking. Or driving. Or almost any human activity.

In short, drivers drive, writers write and eaters eat. In other words, we are, to a large degree, literally what we do.

The problem in media or schools or fashion or politics or business or almost any other human endeavour is that we (most of us, I presume) believe in the primary operating principle that people are rational actors in a system that is without overriding influence from external, if not irrelevant, factors, and that most people will, most of the time, choose to preserve their own health, well-being, neighborhoods and defining institutions and social systems.

No matter what your personal philosophy or political stance might be, I think one rare area of agreement across all party lines would be acknowledging that assumption to be, at minimum, arguably false.

For whatever set of reasons and causes, we humans, especially the modern version of us, seem determined to sabotage and undermine our own best interests. Even our own economic, and sometimes literal, survival.

This, if anything, is a working definition of stupidity. And stupidity is worse than malice or outright evil.

Becoming financially independent is (relatively) easy

Several years ago I heard a financial advisor define two avenues toward financial stability; stay married and keep your job.

Acquiring wealth in any healthy economy is relatively simple; a steady income, with even a rudimentary saving plan, for most of us, barring any major financial obstacles, should lead to a relatively stable financial plateau by the end of a working career.

But we can, of course, just as easily, drive ourselves into debt and financial catastrophe.

Divorce and job instability are, apparently the preferred means of self-imposed economic calamity. One couple I know, in pursuit of an ever more vitriolic and complicated legal separation, have spent well over $100,000 on legal fees in their determination to split up their remaining assets. Somehow I think that meets, or exceeds, any dictionary definition of stupidity.

Stupidity or evil?

Evil, we might assume, has an intent, and agenda or final purpose in mind. Stupidity bumbles along, presuming its own superiority and invincibility to facts, persuasion or other points of view.

Stupidity prevails in business, politics, religion and anywhere else humans set their course against basic decency, common sense and, all too often, their own survival.

We could, quite easily, have a fair economy, solid borders, safe streets, healthy children, an excellent educational system, a respected legal system, free and fair elections, and few, if any homeless if we had a system free of bias, short-sighted self-interest and sheer ineptitude.

We could, I am convinced, have a society worthy of the best, not the worst, of us.

Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed- in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.

If we want to know how to get the better of stupidity, we must seek to understand its nature. This much is certain, that it is in essence not an intellectual defect but a human one.

– Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from ‘After Ten Years’ in Letters and Papers from Prison