[geeks] Mac definitions

[Phil Stracchino]

On 07/15/11 21:44, Mouse wrote:
> Why is stupidity any different?  (To some extent I'm playing devil's
> advocate here, but not totally.  I also am fully aware that some of
> those traits are not wholly genetic; since this is discussing "the gene
> pool", all we need to stipulate is that there is a genetic contribution
> to them - and, for most of the ones I listed, I believe there is.  Any
> for which there isn't can be removed from the list and the rest of the
> argument still applies.)

Well, taking your haemophilia example, and keeping the same
devil's-advocate spirit:

(a)  Haemophiliacs are no less likely than anyone else to be productive
members of society despite their illness.  Neither, in principle, are
asthma sufferers (though they probably won't be athletes or
firefighters, or serve in the military) and diabetics (though they're
barred from certain professions such as being airline pilots, where a
diabetic coma at the wrong time could be disastrous).  On the other
hand, one could argue that many of the stupid things people do (example:
 the woman in California recently who set a brushfire because she broke
down and, iirc, didn't have a cell phone) are costs, not benefits, to
society.  Both directly and ...

(b)  Indirectly, the stupid antics that people who can't be arsed to
stop and think get up to cost us huge amounts both in terms of money for
liability, and in things we can no longer do because some imbecile did
something so brainstampingly stupid that it's difficult to comprehend
their motivation.  Think about perfectly sound products that have been
taken off the market (or whose prices have doubled to cover the
liability insurance) because their manufacturers couldn't figure out a
way to make them proof against the magnitude of idiocy that reaches
under the mowing deck of a running lawnmower, looks for a gas leak with
a lighted match, lights up a smoke while cleaning parts with gasoline,
tries to shoot a wart off of their thumb with a shotgun, etc, etc, etc.

I mean, I'd try to cite more examples here, but some of the things I've
come across are so astoundingly stupid my brain won't retain them.
"You can't get that any more, because somebody [ ...fitb... ]"
"Wait a minute, somebody did WHAT?!?  And wasn't immediately declared
mentally incompetent?"

Fer crissakes, we have people *WINNING* product liability lawsuits on
the basis of injuries suffered as a result of actions that, a hundred
years ago, would lead people to speculate that they'd gotten kicked in
the head by a horse a few too many times.  They'd shake their heads
sadly, sigh, and say "Boy just ain't right."



(Should probably stick a [/rant] meta-tag here.  ;)


-- 
  Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
  alaric at caerllewys.net   alaric at metrocast.net   phil at co.ordinate.org
  Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, SQL wrangler, Free Stater
                 It's not the years, it's the mileage.