How Can Humans Be So Smart and So Stupid?

The Leaders and the Followers

Human beings are an amazing contradiction.

We can put a machine on Mars, replace a human heart, build skyscrapers, split atoms, communicate across the planet in seconds, and create artificial intelligence capable of doing things that would have sounded like science fiction not long ago.

Then we turn around and do some of the dumbest things imaginable.

We start wars we know will destroy lives. We ruin relationships over pride. We follow people we wouldn’t trust with our car keys. We believe something because everybody around us believes it. We repeat mistakes that history has already explained to us a hundred times.

So how can humans be so smart and so stupid at the same time?

Maybe because intelligence and wisdom aren’t the same thing.

Smart Doesn’t Mean Wise

A person can be highly educated and still make terrible decisions.

Intelligence gives us the ability to figure out how to do something. Wisdom makes us stop and ask whether we should do it in the first place.

Human beings have become incredibly good at the first question.

We’re not nearly as good at the second.

We can invent powerful technology without knowing what it will eventually do to society. We can build weapons capable of destroying cities and then spend decades hoping nobody gets angry enough to use them.

That’s the strange thing about progress. Our machines keep getting smarter, but the human emotions operating them haven’t changed much.

We still have greed.

We still have jealousy.

We still have fear.

We still have pride.

And we still want power.

The Leaders

Every society produces leaders.

Some become leaders because they’re intelligent, capable, and genuinely want to accomplish something worthwhile.

Others become leaders because they desperately want to be leaders.

There’s a big difference.

Power attracts people who want to improve the world, but it also attracts people who simply enjoy having power over somebody else.

That’s one of humanity’s oldest problems.

Kings had it.

Governments have it.

Corporations have it.

Religions have had it.

Even a little neighborhood organization can have somebody acting like they’re commanding the Roman Empire.

Give human beings a little authority and eventually somebody will start taking themselves way too seriously.

The dangerous leader isn’t always the stupid one, either.

Sometimes the most dangerous leader is extremely intelligent.

Intelligence combined with ego, ambition, greed, or fear can accomplish terrible things very efficiently.

History has proven that.

Then There Are the Followers

Of course, leaders can’t lead without followers.

That’s where things get even more interesting.

Human beings are social animals. We want to belong. We want a tribe. We want people around us who agree with us and reassure us that we’re on the right side.

That instinct probably helped our ancestors survive.

If everybody in the tribe suddenly started running, standing there asking for additional evidence about the approaching lion probably wasn’t a great survival strategy.

Follow the crowd and stay alive.

But that ancient instinct followed us into the modern world.

Today the lion might be a rumor on the internet.

Everybody starts running anyway.

People repeat things they haven’t investigated. They defend people they’ve never met. They join movements without understanding them. Sometimes they’ll even turn against friends and family because their chosen group tells them the other side is the enemy.

And intelligent people aren’t immune.

Sometimes smart people are simply better at inventing complicated reasons for believing what they already wanted to believe.

Leaders Need Followers, and Followers Create Leaders

Here’s the uncomfortable part.

We like blaming bad leaders for everything.

Sometimes they deserve it.

But leaders don’t appear out of thin air.

People support them.

People defend them.

People excuse them.

People hand them power.

A leader can point toward the cliff, but thousands of people still have to decide to follow.

That’s why independent thinking matters.

Not because you’re always going to be right. Nobody is.

Independent thinking simply means being willing to ask:

Does this make sense?

Who benefits from me believing this?

Am I following facts, or am I following my tribe?

Would I still believe this if somebody I disliked said it?

Those aren’t political questions.

They’re human questions.

Maybe We’re Just Smart Monkeys

For all our technology, perhaps human beings haven’t changed as much as we’d like to believe.

We’re incredibly intelligent animals carrying around some very ancient instincts.

We want food.

We want security.

We want sex.

We want status.

We want acceptance.

We want somebody to tell us everything is going to be okay.

And when we’re frightened, angry, lonely, or desperate, intelligence can disappear surprisingly fast.

Maybe civilization isn’t proof that we conquered our primitive nature.

Maybe civilization is simply the thin layer we’ve built on top of it.

The Greatest Human Skill

Our greatest accomplishment may not be intelligence.

It may be our ability to recognize our own stupidity.

A fool who knows he might be wrong has a chance.

A genius who believes he can never be wrong can become dangerous.

That’s true for leaders.

It’s true for followers.

And it’s true for every one of us.

Human beings are smart enough to understand the universe and stupid enough to keep fighting over who gets the biggest piece of it.

Maybe that’s what makes humanity so fascinating.

We’re capable of incredible kindness and unbelievable cruelty, brilliant discoveries and ridiculous mistakes, independent thought and blind obedience.

The smartest thing humans may ever learn is something painfully simple:

Before you follow somebody, make sure they know where they’re going.

And before you decide you’re smart enough to lead everybody else, take one more look in the mirror.