People are Smart

It is common knowledge that the majority of people are idiots. It is likewise common knowledge that common knowledge is often wrong (which is ironically based on the idea that most people are idiots). Anyways, a surprising amount (at least to me) of people believe that everyone in the world, except for them, is an idiot.

The first time I noticed this was when I was discussing the education problem (the fact that not everyone gets an equal education, or even gets the opportunity for an equal education), with a friend. And he asked me, "Well, how would you solve it?" and I thought about it for a few minutes, and the conclusion I came to was "I can't solve it. It's actually ridiculous of you to assume that I would even have something approaching a good idea within such a short time span. As a matter of fact, unless I do some hardcore research, no amount of time of thinking about it will help. And for that matter, there are plenty of people that have actually done this hardcore research, and not solved it. Now, it is possible that I'll be able to strike on a solution that those people missed, but nonetheless, they're not idiots, and such a solution isn't obvious." I gave him the short version of that. After which he proceeded to tell me how he thought the "problem" should be solved.

Now, discussing such things is good, and since I'm not a mind reader, I can't actually tell if he did anything wrong in this. But if he actually thought that the solution that he proposed was a good solution, and should be used, that is a case of assuming that everyone in the world, except for himself is an idiot. Now, it is true that I have done that myself sometimes, but I will say that you should start every thought off with the idea that nobody is an idiot (even though some people are) rather than that everyone is an idiot.

A good example of the difference: The person thinking that everyone's an idiot hears "All people are created equal," and says, "That's ridiculous, some people are born lame, some people have deficiencies, some people are born stronger and smarter than others." So, this person is then told that Thomas Jefferson wrote this in the Declaration of Independence. Now, they might back down, or they might say "Thomas Jefferson is an idiot, and the Declaration of Independence is stupid." Which they actually already did, in effect say.

Now, a person that assumes that no one is an idiot would realize that in saying "All people are created equal," something is lost. Because it clearly can't mean that all people are equal, so they would say "What do you mean, what about the lame, and the dumb? Please clarify your statement." Upon being informed that it was in Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, you could say "O, that makes sense, it's a political document, what Thomas Jefferson means is that all people are politically equal." And then you might get to thinking well, what does that mean? and say, "O, it means that every person's interests are equivalent to every other person. My interest in staying alive is equivalent to all other's interest in staying alive. I guess that makes sense, yeah, we are all created equal." And then you'd think about it some more, and maybe you'd decide you disagree, maybe sometimes one person's interest wins over another's.

But in either case, you'll understand what you're actually disagreeing with and realize that Thomas Jefferson isn't an idiot. So, it is a really good idea to assume that no one is an idiot.