Note: It’s much more fun to listen to Cleese say this than to read it. So if you can, click here and watch him on YouTube. Read along and see if you move your lips.
Stupid Season
“I think
the problem with people like this is that they are so stupid that they have no
idea how stupid they are.
“You see, if you’re very, very stupid, how can you
possibly realize that you’re very, very stupid? You’d have to be relatively
intelligent to realize how stupid you are.
“There’s a wonderful bit of research
by a guy called David Dunning at Cornell, who’s a friend of mine, I’m proud to
say, who’s pointed out that in order to know how good you are at something
requires exactly the same skills as it does to be good at that thing in the
first place. Which means that if you’re absolutely no good at something at all,
then you lack exactly the skills that you need to know that you’re absolutely
no good at it.
“And this explains not just Hollywood, but almost the entirety of
Fox News.”
—John Cleese, citizen-philosopher and minister of Silly Walks, “John Cleese on Stupidity,”
YouTube, 2014
(Thanks to alert WORDsters Barry Kort, Ann Berry and many others who apparently
monitor stupid issues.)
• Editorial Comment: There are so many applications of this wisdom on stupidity that it’s hard to know where to start.
PeezPix by Ted Pease
Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.)
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD
“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
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Emil Dansker notes: "Still think it makes no sense."
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