The Power of Stupidity
Maria Isabel doesn’t deserve
to live in a world
run by the power of stupidity
By Flávio Corrêa – June 2009
also available as
pdf
(better for printing)
This is an English translation of an article
that is also the last and conclusive chapter
of Flávio Corrêa’s book
Curto & Grosso.
It’s written in Portuguese, but the review is based
on the English edition of The Power of Stupidity.
Some of the examples relating to situations
in Brazil are shortened or omitted.
Of course I am quite delighted to be contradicted
by the birth of Maria Isabel and other wonderful children.
[g.l.]
I didn’t want to write any more about the recurrent examples of o poder da estupidez, that continue to fill the pages of newspapers. But I can’t avoid mentioning a fascinating book that its author, my friend Giancarlo Livraghi, sent me directly from Milan.
Title of the English edition: “The Power of Stupidity”. A brilliant essay that shows us, among many other things, how the world is dominated by stupidity. How stupidity has devastating effects on humanity. And why we must never underestimate its power: it is everywhere around and also inside all of us.
There is much more stupidity in the world than intelligence. Lamentably.
If Giancarlo wasn’t right, we wouldn’t be mourning the dramatic death of 228 people when Air France flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic Ocean [May 31, 2009 – T. N.] because of a tiny detail, the malfunction of a small device in a highly sophisticated airplane that costs millions of dollars. Where is the idiot who didn’t realize that this could happen?
We wouldn’t be fiercely arguing for and against a presidential third term that seems to be finally buried. ..... When Fernando Enrique passed the amendment, the Constitution was raped. It lost its virginity. But such a penetration doesn’t change substantially political anatomy. If a second term wasn’t a threat to democracy, a third needn’t be. ..... But it is wanted to be forbidden. Especially by those who, though better educated and culturally more competent, forget with astonishing speed the lessons of history – that, generally, repeats itself. We are forgetting the power of stupidity.
We wouldn’t be arguing for and against the advancement of science, that now defeats previously incurable diseases and causes the aging of population to be a great challenge to civilization. One more stupidity crisis.
We wouldn’t be experiencing in our flesh the effects of the “marolinha” [real estate débacle – T. N.] that dragged us into a recession and crisis in the midst of countless robberies perpetrated by the “market”. In this case, the stupidity is ours, as we entered blindly into the game and we allowed all of this to happen. We are stupid.
We wouldn’t be regrettig the departure of Muricy Ramalho, who after three and a half years of excellent work as coach of the São Paulo football team was hastily dismissed because he didn’t win the Libertadores cup. Awful ingratitude. But also stupidity, because now he is leading a rival team, Rio’s Fluminense, to win Brazil’s main cup.
We wouldn’t be nostalgic of Sadia [Brazil’s leading company and brand in poultry production and exports – T. N.] that disappeared as the victim of a succession of management stupidities.
Giancarlo Livraghi is right: stupidity has always been, and still is, in command.
But the good side of all this is that the world became better and more beautiful on June 16, 2005, when at 6 P. M. Maria Isabel was born from the womb of her young and lovely mother, Rubiane. Looking at her, this father couldn’t control his indescribable happiness and cried “She is marvelous!”. In that instant the universe, that was getting ready for one more sunset, shined again and announced the miracle of life, represented by the perfect newborn creature. Maria Isabel is the counter-argument to Giancarlo’s thesis. Only an act of enormous divine intelligence could create Maria Isabel, a renovation of my life, the shining star of my aging.
I just desire that the world in which she will live won’t be governed by stupidity.
Flávio Corrêa
