Thanks for being a subscriber — and if you haven’t come aboard yet, what are you waiting for? Subscribe now to join our merry band of freethinkers, iconoclasts, and liberty-lovers. It costs less than a quarter a day to receive eight pieces of original content a week, participate in our community’s conversations, and enjoy full access to the No Dowd About It archives.
If you’re a really satisfied customer, and want to leave a “tip,” do so via Ko-fi!
Please like, share, comment on, etc. today’s DDD. And send feedback directly to dowd@dowdmuska.com or @dowdmuska.
Essentially stupid people are dangerous and damaging because reasonable people find it difficult to imagine and understand unreasonable behavior. An intelligent person may understand the logic of a bandit. The bandit’s actions follow a pattern of rationality: nasty rationality, if you like, but still rationality. The bandit wants a plus on his account. Since he is not intelligent enough to devise ways of obtaining the plus as well as providing you with a plus, he will produce his plus by causing a minus to appear on your account. All this is bad, but it is rational and if you are rational you can predict it. You can foresee a bandit’s actions, his nasty maneuvres and ugly aspirations and often can build up your defenses.
With a stupid person all this is absolutely impossible ... . A stupid creature will harass you for no reason, for no advantage, without any plan or scheme and at the most improbable times and places. You have no rational way of telling if and when and how and why the stupid creature attacks. When confronted with a stupid individual you are completely at his mercy.
— Carlo M. Cipolla
Reading Time: 5 minutes 50 seconds
Today is Friday, September 1st, the 244th day of 2023. There are 121 days left in the year. It is Pink Cadillac Day, Emma M. Nutt Day, Ginger Cat Appreciation Day, and World Letter Writing Day.
On This Day
In 1897, the Tremont Street Subway in Boston opened, becoming the first underground transit system in North America.
In 1914, the last known passenger pigeon died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
In 1939, Nazi Germany and Slovakia invaded Poland, beginning the European phase of World War II.
In 1952, The Old Man and the Sea, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Ernest Hemingway, was published.
In 1957, 14-year-old Jimi Hendrix caught Elvis Presley’s performance at Sick’s Stadium in Seattle.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to No Dowd About It to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.