You are stupid, too, so leave me alone

December 24, 2007

Freedom is the most logical way to minimize stupidity.

You are stupid if you make stupid decisions. A stupid decision is one which is not in your best interest. Your best interest is your vision of a perfect life. Different people have different perceptions of what a perfect life looks like; you may desire a lifestyle that I consider against your best interest. So a decision that may be stupid for me may not necessarily be stupid for you. A stupid decision is one that makes it more difficult for any person to make their unique vision of a perfect life their reality, whatever it is.

Everybody does stupid things. Some people may achieve their goals, but there will always be stumbles along the way. Maybe you will benefit from some stumbles, maybe you won’t. But in the end, nobody dies with a perfect score. In that sense, stupidity is as sure to life as death and taxes.

If all people are stupid, then it’s unreasonable to expect anything more from groups of people. Corporations will make mistakes, charities will make mistakes, governments will make mistakes, and so on. The only thing we can do is hope the people who run those organizations will learn something from their mistakes and do better next time.

In order for us to ensure that happens, we as individuals must impose our perception of accountability on others. We already agreed that stupidity is relative; a decision you perceive to be a mistake could end up making some director extremely wealthy. From his perspective, everything went according to plan. It’s often in the interest of those with power to abuse it. But even if the power wasn’t abused, it’s definitely not in the interest of the director’s vision for us to enforce some moral or ethical code of conduct to which he may not be in agreement. And of course we must concede the possibility, as unlikely as it may seem, that perhaps he’s right. Either way, imposing accountability is not a simple matter without externalities. Maybe you will succeed only to face increased stupidity in other forms because the director never complied willingly.

The only way to ensure maximum accountability, according to our own personal interests, is for us as individuals keep as much control over as many decisions as possible. It’s much easier to hold myself accountable than it is to hold someone else accountable, especially if that someone else is an abstract institution for which the people responsible are anonymous. I will make mistakes, but at least I know it will always be in my best interest to hold myself accountable for my stupid decisions. And I will learn, even if by accident. Imposing a decision on me will not have the same effect. Furthermore, we should outsource as little of our vision creation as possible simply because each individual is unique. Nobody knows how best to achieve my vision of a perfect life better than me.

All of us as individuals will make mistakes, but that doesn’t mean it’s in our best interest for groups of other stupid people to interfere with our learning process and the universe’s attempt to hold us accountable, even if we’re too stupid to know it, even if we feel really bad. The best thing we can do to help stupid people is to give them advice if they are receptive, then leave them alone.

Governments are the worst form of interference. Maximum freedom to make our own way in the world is the most logical way to minimize stupidity over time. So leave me alone.