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We're All With Stupid (but some more than others)!..

I'm wondering this morning what the oilies' equivalent might be for 'one sheep short in the top paddock'. Maybe it's being one contour short of a full closure. Or one prospect short of a balanced portfolio.

One reason I'm thinking about this is that the sun is shining this Calgary morning and the sky is blue, after two weeks of wind and snow, and I'm sitting in my apartment writing this Words column.

The other reason is the co-incidental release in Canada this past week of two books and a film about stupidity, and a review of them by feature writer Tralee Pearse in the May 3rd Globe and Mail.

The documentary, by Toronto film-maker Albert Nerenberg was called Stupidity, and proved a big hit at the Toronto documentary film festival. The two books were Stupidity by New York University academic Avital Ronell and The Encyclopaedia of Stupidity by Dutchman Matthijs van Boxsel.

What was amazing was the common thread in all three works: that stupidity is a force in itself, and cannot be understood as the opposite of intelligence or sensibility.

Nerenberg, whose film focusses on the likes of Big Brother TV shows and Adam Sandler movies, flippantly describes stupidity 'as having nothing in your head and sharing it'.

Van Boxsel, preaching from a far loftier intellectual podium, says that his exhaustive historical review of definitions of stupidity shows a near universal description of it as a force, not a failing.

'Stupidity is an intellectual quality with a logic of its own. Stupidity is not the converse of intelligence; it is the converse of a lack of stupidity.'

That was, I thought, a useful insight into some of the decisions made in companies exploring for oil and gas. So too was his next remark: 'Particularly fatal is the combination of stupidity and intelligence'.

Ms Ronell stresses the important distinction between dumbness and stupidity or, to use the wonderfully onomatopoeic German word, dummheit. We can't really argue with dumbness, she suggests, but 'stupidity is linked to an effect of malice; it calls for judgement'.

Both Ronell and van Boxsel see stupidity as a fundamental human quality. While this is something of a 'new' idea today, it was apparently widely accepted in earlier times, with 'stupidity' commonly portrayed along with other human qualities in medieval and Renaissance allegorical paintings.

Both authors go so far as to suggest it may be the fundamental quality or trait in humans, and that much of human development, and even evolution, is our attempt to deal with its consequences.

Culture, van Boxsel suggests , 'is nothing but the result of a series of more or less unsuccessful attempts to come to terms with our self-destructive folly. Stupidity has forced man to develop his intellect.'

Complaining about management decisions is endemic to our industry and invariably assigns varying levels of stupidity to the decision-makers. We're far from unique in this, of course; any human endeavour that involves a hierarchy making decisions that affect lower ranks is prone to dissention.

This is often misplaced, because the rank-and-file don't necessarily have the facts and experience to make the judgements they are sure they are capable of and correct about. Equally, the criticism is often valid, and for the same reason: the decision makers don't necessarily have the facts and experience to make the decisions they are sure they are capable of and correct about.

This is where stupidity can come quickly to the fore. We're all specialists of one sort or another, and we come to the decision-making process with that mind-set and world view. It can easily mislead us.

A manager from a financial or engineering background, for instance, might find the risk inherent in exploration a difficult concept. Conversely, a geologist may be drawn to high risk plays because of his thirst for exploration. Neither is at fault in this, and experience and training will provide the balance needed at higher management levels. In theory, anyway.

The problem arises when that mind-set persists. The geologist is bidding for blocks with work programs the company can't afford. The engineer begins to postpone decisions, always wanting more information, until the opportunity has passed. Stupidity is then upon us.

(I have long enjoyed the story of Austrian Heinrich Schliemann, a very astute businessman turned archeologist who, in the late 19th Century, stumbled upon what he was sure were the ruins of the ancient city of Troy. An old and dilapidated olive farm covered the site and Schliemann resolved to buy it rather than have to negotiate access. When the crusty old farmer named his price, however, Schliemann stormed away indignantly, declaring the farm wasn't worth the money. The accountant within had got the better of him and he behaved stupidly. He didn't need a commercial deal on the olive farm. He'd found Troy! Pay the man!)

Erik Durshmied, author of The Hinge Factor: How Chance and Stupidity have Changed History, argues that grave mistakes are made because decision makers in positions of great power, be they military or political, are all specialists, with specific fields of knowledge. 'When something doesn't fit into it, everything goes haywire.'

The stupidity may come from character flaws – arrogance, for instance, or indecision – but these are often linked to inadequate experience and knowledge.

Like Van Boxsel, Durshmied warns that 'stupidity easily befalls those in charge, especially those convinced of their own intelligence'.

Ms Ronell suggests that affecting stupidity can be a survival mechanism but, as one given to pleading 'senior moments' occasionally – and increasingly entitled to do so – I'm not sure she isn't confusing playing dumb with being stupid.

Her main conclusion, however, is a blunt warning about the power of stupidity unchecked by self or others. When stupidity 'asserts itself without remorse… it poses as a replica of absolute knowledge: achieving closure, knowing its ground and meaning, stupidity is accomplice to the narcissism of systems that close in upon themselves as truth'.

In short, the closer a decision-maker gets to complete conviction about knowledge, wisdom and authority, the greater the risk that the decisions will start to be stupid, and he'll be firmly in charge of every last stupid bit of it!

Collectively, the message is a warning that stupidity should be taken seriously. It is not a behaviorism restricted to senior management and teenagers. It applies to us all, in all our endeavours.

Peter Purcell

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