1976年，经济史学教授卡洛·奇波拉提出了关于愚蠢的五条基本定律。相比无用之人与无能之人，蠢人总是给社会带来净损失。奇波拉教授认为，蠢人身上有一些突出特点是相通的，比如总量庞大、缺乏理智，净干些既给别人添乱又对自己没什么好处的事，结果就是拉低整个社会的发展水平。他说，蠢就是蠢，没什么好辩解的。一个社会，要想不被蠢人拖垮，只能靠其他不蠢的成员加倍努力，来抵消蠢人这种负累带来的损失。以下是奇波拉教授关于愚蠢的五大基本定律：
定律一：处于活跃状态的蠢人总数，永远比人们想象的要多。
定律二：一个人是否愚蠢，与此人身上的其他任何特点都没有必然联系。
定律三：所谓蠢人，就是在不产生个人收益甚或引发个人损失的同时，对他人或其他群体造成损失的人。
定律四：蠢人的破坏力永远被低估了。
定律五：蠢人是最危险的一类人。
In 1976, Carlo Cipolla, a professor of economic history, derived a social law, by which we can group people into four categories: The first he called “the helpless”, the second are “the intelligent”, the third are “the bandits”, and the last are “the stupid”. The stupid person is the most dangerous type of person, and in groups far more powerful than the Mafia, the Military, Cipolla warned. To arrive at this conclusion, we need to understand his 5 Basic Laws of Human Stupidity.
1976年，经济史学教授卡洛·奇波拉提出了一条社会定律。根据这条法则，我们可以把人分为四类：第一类被他称为“无用之人”，第二类是“聪明人”，第三类是“恶棍”，最后一类是“蠢人”。奇波拉警告说，愚蠢之人是最危险的一种人，而且在集体中的影响力远远超过黑手党、武装力量。要得出这一结论，我们需要了解他的《人类愚蠢基本定律》。
1: Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
1：每个人都不可避免地低估了社会运转当中蠢人的数量。
2: The probability that a person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person. Education, wealth or status have nothing to do with it.
2：某个人愚蠢的概率与他身上的其他任何特征都没有必然联系，教育、财富或地位都与此毫无关系。
3: A stupid person is someone who causes losses to other people while himself deriving no gain.
3：愚蠢之人就是在对他人造成损失的同时，自己却没有获得任何收益。
4: Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid people and keep forgetting that to deal with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
4：非愚蠢之人总是低估蠢人的破坏力，而且总是忘记，与愚蠢之人打交道，最后必然是一场代价昂贵的错误。
5: A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person, even more dangerous than a bandit.
5：愚蠢的人是最危险的一类人，甚至比恶棍更危险。
Cipolla then considers four factors of human behavior. A person can cause benefits to others, benefits to themselves, losses to others and losses to themselves. If Tom takes an action and suffers a loss, he’s helpless. If Tom benefits himself, while also benefiting Jerry, he’s intelligent. If Tom helps himself, but causes Jerry a loss, he's a bandit. And if Tom does something that’s of no benefit to him, but causes Jerry a loss he’s stupid. Ineffectual people are in the center. Let's now look at the effects of these groups on society. Helpless people contribute to society but are taken advantage of by others, especially bandits. And so their contribution is limited.
然后，奇波拉考虑了人类行为的四个要素，一个人可以给别人带来好处，给自己带来好处，给别人带来损失，给自己带来损失。如果汤姆采取了行动并遭受了损失，他就是无用之人。如果汤姆使自己受益，同时也使杰瑞受益，他就是聪明人。如果汤姆使自己受益，却使杰瑞蒙受损失，他就是“恶棍”。而如果汤姆做了一件对他没有好处，却又让杰瑞吃亏的事，他就是蠢人。无能的人处于中间。现在我们来看看这些群体对社会的影响，无用之人对社会有贡献，但往往被其他人，尤其是恶棍所利用，因此，他们的贡献是有限的。
Note that extreme altruists or pacifists may willingly accept a place in this category for moral reasons. Intelligent people contribute to society and leverage their contributions into reciprocal benefits. Their actions lead to a net gain to society, which is why helpless people should always support intelligent ones. Bandits pursue their own self-interest and enrich themselves, even when doing so poses a harm to society. Helpless and intelligent people should try to stop them. Stupid people always contribute to a net loss to society. But not only that. As they do so for no obvious reason, Their actions also frustrate, anger and confuse everyone else.
请注意，极端的利他主义者或和平主义者可能出于道德原因而自愿加入这一类别。聪明的人对社会作出贡献，并将他们的贡献转化为互惠的利益，他们的行为导致了社会的净收益，这就是为什么无用之人应该永远支持聪明人。恶棍们追求自己的利益，使自己致富，即使这样做会对社会造成危害，无用之人和聪明人应该努力阻止他们。蠢人总是给社会带来净损失，但不仅如此，因为他们这样做没有明显的理由，他们的行为也使其他人感到沮丧、愤怒和困惑。
Against major cultural trends among his fellow intellectuals, Cipolla was convinced that men are not equal. That some are stupid and others are not, and that the difference is determined by nature and nothing else. One is stupid in the same way one is red-haired, he wrote. Cipolla warned that the damaging potential of the stupid person therefore depends on the amount of stupidity inherited, as well as their position of power in a society. Among bureaucrats, generals and politicians one has little difficulty in finding clear examples of basically stupid individuals, whose damaging capacity was alarmingly enhanced by the position of the power they occupied.
与在他的知识分子同僚中盛行的主流文化相反，奇波拉确信人是不平等的，有些人是愚蠢的，有些人则不是，而这种差异是天生的，不受其他影响。他写道：“一个人是愚蠢的，就像一个人是红头发一样”。波奇拉警告说，因此愚蠢的人的破坏性潜力取决于继承的愚蠢程度以及他们在社会中的权力地位。在官僚、将军和政客中，人们不难发现一些愚蠢之人的明显例子，他们的破坏能力因其所处的权力地位而急剧地增强。
What are your thoughts on stupidity? Are people born or made stupid? Or is it, as usual, more complex, and is there an interrelationship between the two?
你对愚蠢有什么看法？一个人的愚蠢是先天还是后天造成的呢？还是说情况更加复杂，两者之间存在着相互关系？
本期译制团：
翻译：AL
总校：良哥
source: Sprouts