Appreciating Strategic* Stupidity (*Potemkin = façade, coverup) [PDF, images, video]
People won’t fight against things that they don’t understand and cannot describe. We have to gain new words and understandings in order to live free in a complex pro-fascist ecosystem.
Today’s post will detail the concept of strategic/Potemkin stupidity and follows yesterday’s post that provided a connoisseur’s introduction to Gaslighting, Dogwhistling, Stupidity, Naiveté, and BS.
Understanding this concept {strategic stupidity} and gaining ability to articulate it, identify it, and describe it provides us with an empowering liberation from being trapped by this manipulative technique that is commonly used by politicians and ‘public health’ Pharmapuppets.
People won’t resist and fight against things that they don’t understand and cannot describe.
We have to gain new words and understandings in order to live free in a complex pro-fascist ecosystem.
Why are we perpetually at risk of having our societies overruled by fascist/corporate interests? The answer is quite obvious and simple: because fascist groups always have money (resources), financial interest to gain more money (motive), ruthlessness, and they are well organized because they are focused on specific interests—specifically gaining more money and power. In contrast, the more humanitarian or “socialist” interests are more vague, complacent, patient, hopeful, trusting, naïve, loving, dispersed, easygoing, less industrious and certainly less focused so they are easier to defeat in politics and on the battlefield.
Stupidity can have a positive or a negative value
As I mentioned yesterday, I have been a connoisseur of different forms and flavors of stupidity for many years; this is somewhat to be expected from someone who has spent 20 years studying, working and fighting in academia at all levels from undergraduate to doctorate (x3) to academic professorship, leadership, politics and —ultimately— renunciation.
“Stupid” as a Positive value
The positive aspect of the word stupid will be discussed in an upcoming post; I am quite convinced that this word can be used positively, and I’ll discuss my experience and perspective as such.
“Stupid” as a Negative value
This current post will use a recent academic publication as a discussion piece for the topic of a subcategory of negative stupidity which the author (Dr Jerry Sheppard) describes as “Potemkin Stupidity” which I have referred to as “strategic stupidity.”
Potemkin Stupidity (Sheppard and Young 2021), aka “strategic stupidity”
Carl Sagan (see videos embedded below) famously quipped, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” Likewise, any time we are exploring a new idea we should begin with the basic fundamentals—in this case with some authoritative document or review of that topic. I became aware of the following article by Dr. Jerry Sheppard late last year when we were starting to transition out of Europe; as such, my review of the article was delayed until now. I provided a clean PDF copy of the article in yesterday’s post, and here I have provided my personal highlighted version with the initials AVHL, which is my own shorthand for “Alex Vasquez highlighted” because sometimes I keep a clean copy of an article and also a second version which I’ve annotated.
Since I knew nothing about the author or his credentials, I had to do some background work to see that he actually has an academic position, a legitimate PhD degree from University of Washington, and has authored several peer-reviewed papers, some of which mention stupidity as the subject. The PDF article above is published in Academia Letters, which is relatively new and much less authoritative publication than is Journal of Management & Organization (PDF provided below) which is published by Oxford University Press (major publisher, even if a pawn to monied interests) and is the journal of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management (professional organization). Most of his ideas in the 2021 article in Academia Letters actually originated and are better defined and justified in the 2020 article in Journal of Management & Organization, which I have provided below:
Among 5 types of stupidity, 2 are “acceptable” and 3 are “bad”
All types of stupidity reflect a mismatch between cognitive effort and environmental/situational demands. Sometimes, this mismatch is plainly obvious and objective while in other situations it is more subtle and subjective.
1. Naïve/innocent/novice stupidity
This is the best type of stupidity and what I consider to be the good kind, assuming that the novice is willing to learn from someone with more experience and knowledge. Anyone who wants to gain talent or eventually become an expert in any subject will have to go through a stage of ignorance and incubation, hopefully under the tutelage of a knowledgeable professor, expert, or at least a good social mentor who has some modicum of spiritual/emotional/psychological practice. During the period of development, the novice or student will appear to be relatively stupid in comparison to a seasoned journeyman or craftsman. The novice has to be willing to accept their inferior position in the knowledge-experience hierarchy and be willing to do the work and receive the lessons necessary to advance. During this time of learning, the student may do things that appear brazenly stupid, ignorant, and irresponsible in the eyes of a more experienced expert. The student has to be humble enough to acknowledge their mistakes, and the mentor has to be kind enough to not completely crush the spirit and enthusiasm of the student while making corrections.
2. Functional/convenient stupidity
Functional stupidity is the lowest level of human or organizational performance that can still make ends meet, get the job done, put food on the table, and keep a roof overhead. This is the minimum requirement for compatibility with existence. However, it obviously does not allow for much advancement or growth, and for employees/students/children who have to work under a conveniently stupid family/organizational structure, their growth will be stifled. Therefore and quite obviously, functional/convenient stupidity really only works for a few people within any structure/family/organization and it actively restrains the development and flourishing of people lower in the hierarchy. The only truly good aspect to the intellectual laziness that manifests as functional/convenient stupidity is that it serves to conserve biological/mental energy of those who have taken this easy route.
EXAMPLE: An example of this is commonly seen in multigenerational family-owned businesses, wherein the people at the top of the hierarchy are the bosses simply because they have inherited keys to the building and not because they have any talent nor because they worked hard to develop the business; many times, they can be outperformed by subordinate employees who have actually studied the field and who are eager to advance their careers. When the people at the top of an organization are simply doing the minimum required to get by, then what feels cozy and convenient and comfortable for them is almost always a painful restriction and hindrance imposed upon able-minded employees restrained below them. Obviously, this is the common scenario that leads to the entrepreneurial seizure (Gerber 1995), after which stifled employees leave to form their own businesses; in this way, complacent bosses create their own competition, through their own intellectual laziness.
3. Dysfunctional “bad” stupidity
Dysfunctional stupidity is what we commonly refer to as stupid(ity) because it doesn’t work in the real world either by directly producing failure or by indirectly causing loss of opportunity.
EXAMPLE: When my high school roommate came back to school after a weekend vacation and was found drunk asleep…which resulted in him getting kicked out of school…which resulted in him losing his full scholarship to Harvard University – that was stupid. He obviously should’ve not returned to school drunk or he should’ve camped out in the woods until he was sober. Failure to manage five hours worth of beer cost him an expensive scholarship to one of the most prestigious universities on planet earth, which if he had attended would have set him on the path to financial-social success or a more inflated ego, or both. Mismanagement of five beer-hours cost him a grand once-in-lifetime opportunity – that was stupid.
In real world politics, stupid leaders kill dreams on their kind days and kill people on their mean days. The imbecility that we observe on a daily basis in international politics isn’t simply incompetence – it is malevolence, criminality.
Innocent-appearing stupidity is the friendly-appearing version of murdering people by use of policies not punches, by use of words not weapons.
In real world politics, stupid leaders kill dreams on their kind days and kill people on their mean days. The imbecility that we observe on a daily basis in international politics isn’t simply incompetence – it is malevolence, criminality. Innocent-appearing stupidity is the friendly-appearing version of murdering people and destroying their lives by use of policies not punches, by use of words not weapons. This can be done with a certain level of psychopathic innocence (no personal gain) or can be done intentionally in order to serve covert goals (intentional personal/group gain) that only benefit a few people/billionaires/corporations.
EXAMPLE: The data is supremely clear that early supplementation with vitamin D saves lives against political infections, but politicians don’t mention vitamin D but rather push their populations into testing funnels that become drug-profit pipelines.
4. Malicious, misanthropic, maleficent, manipulative, strategic (Potemkin) “bad” stupidity
Potemkin was a Russian diplomat who famously constructed fake riverfront villages on order to give the impression that the regions were populated and prosperous; thus use of his name “Potemkin” as a descriptor has been used to designate anything that is fake, a façade, or a coverup for other goals, plans, problems. Potemkin stupidity is thus a strategic façade giving the appearance of incompetence and stupidity while the actor is actually busy achieving a goal. Potemkin stupidity is a successful strategy because the façade of incompetence and being dim-witted is socially disarming because it evokes patience, confusion, and/or sympathy.
Potemkin stupidity is a successful strategy because the facade of incompetence and being dim-witted is socially disarming because it evokes patience, confusion, and/or sympathy. Now you understand why so many political leaders in the United States and the United Kingdom are babbling idiots; UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson looks like an unbathed five-year-old who can’t dress himself let alone organize his papers on a desk. Instead of being outraged at his stupidity and clownish incompetence, people are patient with him and they feel sorry for him and this helps him achieve his covert goals.
The least of his goals and the most obvious of his goals is to leave his country leaderless during a time of crisis so that more efficient and focused financial-political interests will be able to determine the course of the nation. This also serves to demoralize and disconnect the population from the political process.
EXAMPLE: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson looks like an unkempt five-year-old who can’t dress himself let alone organize his papers on a desk. Instead of being outraged at his stupidity and clownish incompetence, people are patient with him and they feel sorry for him and this helps him achieve his covert goals. The least of his goals and the most obvious of his goals is to leave his country leaderless during a time of crisis so that more efficient and focused financial-political interests will be able to determine the course of the nation. This also serves to demoralize and disconnect the population from the political process, thereby leading to imposed stupidity, as discussed in the fifth and final section.
5. Imposed “bad” stupidity, forcing people to be stupid/uninformed/lazy so that they will under-perform intellectually and thus be easier to manipulate
You can see here that we have come full circle, starting with an under-performing student then progressing through functional, dysfunctional, and misanthropic/intentional stupidity (generational) to the 5th type of stupidity which is also intentional but multigenerational and aimed at the young, the younger generation, the students—aimed at attacking the mind itself.
On the one hand, all of these different types of stupidity can exist independently without any connection to other types of stupidity… at least for the most part. But the truth of the matter is that while these may may not be linear or circular they are certainly interconnected and interdependent because we could not have this daily avalanche of political stupidity if we did not have a stupefied population that had been intentionally made stupid through pathetic education, brainless television, rythmless music, vacuous lyrics, and a constant barrage of meaningless distractions such as entertainment and movies and television and spectator sports.
Above is the original diagram; below is the updated version posted 30 Aug 2022.
This is exactly what John Taylor Gatto discussed in his famous book "Dumbing Us Down” and this is exactly why I have discussed elite educational strategies that are used to put the rich and power-connected kids into positions of academic, financial and leadership privilege at a time when the rest of us are still playing ping-pong and watching cartoons.
