Former Rector of the University of Tuzla, Enver Halilovic, speaking as the introductory speaker at a regular session of Circle 99 on the topic “How to stop fools and idiots?”, stated that it is “one of the most powerful and darkest forces that prevents the growth of prosperity and happiness of the human race.”
Halilovic added that there are five fundamental laws of stupidity, and that the first fundamental law of stupidity is imperative. It reads: pay attention to and assess the stupid people around us. People do not pay attention to stupid people because they underestimate their power.
“The second fundamental law of stupidity reads: “The probability that a person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.” Stupidity is a natural fact; nature “keeps constant” certain natural phenomena, among which stupidity also belongs. As for the frequency of stupidity, the same percentage of stupid people exists in large as well as small groups, among the educated and the uneducated, the rich and the poor, men and women,” Halilovic added.
The third fundamental law of stupidity, as he added, is the only golden law of stupidity. It reads: “A stupid person is one who causes damage to another person or group of people while, at the same time, not only gaining no advantage for himself, but even possibly suffering a loss.” Based on this law, all people are divided into four groups: helpless cases, intelligent people, thieves, and fools.
According to Halilovic, helpless people or a helpless group of people produce a loss for themselves and a gain for others. Intelligent people or an intelligent group of people produce a gain both for themselves and for others. A thief achieves a benefit for himself by causing a loss to another, while a stupid person or group produces damage both to themselves and to others. Thus, Halilovic emphasized, people are not classified into special categories by any characteristics, but by their actions.
Paraphrased, the fourth law of stupidity states that people who are not stupid always underestimate the harmful potential of stupid people, do business with them, and socialize with them. This law of human stupidity does not concern stupid people, but those who are not stupid, yet whose behavior allows stupid people to gain social power and influence. They make three types of mistakes: they underestimate the harmful potential of stupid people, they do business with stupid people, and they socialize with stupid people.
“The fifth fundamental law of human stupidity is: “A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person that exists. A stupid person is more dangerous than a thief.” The danger of a stupid person arises from the unawareness of their own stupidity,” Halilovic added.
The president of Circle 99, Adil Kulenovic, said that the title of yesterday’s session, “How to stop fools and idiots?”, is deliberately provocative.
“Not to insult, but to shatter one of the most dangerous illusions of contemporary politics: the illusion that all destructive political moves are the result of deep strategies, hidden plans, or sophisticated interests. The Italian economist and philosopher of society Carlo M. Cipolla warned us long ago that this is not entirely true. On the contrary, a large part of the damage in society is produced by actors who act irrationally. His essay also inspired the title of today’s topic,” Kulenovic said yesterday.
On a global level, as he added, today we are witnessing the erosion of the international order through policies that are not only aggressive but also deeply voluntaristic, impulsive, and intellectually irresponsible. Their consequences are devastating: the destabilization of security, the weakening of international norms, as well as the self-destruction of enormous capacities of both hard and soft power of the countries that implement them.
“However, the global context here is only the background. What must be in the focus of our attention is the Bosnian reality. Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is a country that objectively has the potential for success, but in fact has been sliding for thirty years into ever deeper dysfunctionality, political paralysis, and permanent existential uncertainty, including the constantly present threat of various forms of conflict,” Kulenovic said, Fena news agency writes.
