BOOK REVIEW - CARLO M. CIPOLLA's The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

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I didn't have the slightest of inkling that Economics and satire could co-exist. 



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Until I understood the graphs (yes, there are graphs), I was engulfed by the ominous existential crisis.

And to couple that, there are laws which are called basic. 


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Somebody must be pranking me because it says, it does not matter who you are. 

To top this all, this book was suggested to me by my sister. 


Hello! What is happening? 



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The author begins by saying that the root cause of all miseries the world has, even at individual level, is stupidity. 


What drives the concept of this fact, lies in the form of some basic laws as pointed out in the book in the simplest of forms. 


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It does not matter how intelligent and intellectual one is. Stupidity is the hallmark. 

It is also very unexpected. 


Author daringly opines that everyone is not equal and that difference of who is stupid and who is not lies in the fact of nature and not culture or any other factor. 


He further argues that nature has its own ways of bringing this at fore by its own mysterious ways. 


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It does not matter to which class of society, gender, profession, geography or 

religion one belongs to. 

The fraction is always the same.



Among these laws, one of them being the golden one, promptly identifies a stupid person as the one who derives practically no gain to himself/herself in the aftermath.





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The author has assumed four categories of people as helpless, intelligent, bandit and stupid to clarify the levels of stupidity and elaborates the concept with peculiar graphs. 
These graphs are marvellous. 



I will not go into  the description of these four categories of people and the garphs becasue if I go on to write about them, the charm of the book will be spoiled. 

The real marvel lies there and you must read it for yourself.


The most I can leave you with is these dialogues are completely practical and wise. 



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In the later part of the book, the author also talks about degrees of stupidity and how often non-stupid people downplay the repercussions of their interactions even though we have proverbs like -


"Better an intelligent enemy than a stupid friend."


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All in all, this book will evoke heartfelt laughter and amusement because after all it does not impart the lessons of economics. Or, does it? 


Throughout my read, many events, personal interactions, moments, movies came to my mind that affirm the dialogue in the book.

I could not have related to them any better! 


Happy Reading!

Bibliosmia!

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