Mejorando a los mejores
Fools With Power
Guillermo Laich
06/05/2020 17:04
Fools lack metacognition or the ability to step back and look at their incompetence from outside themselves, thus they overvalue themselves and devaluate others from their own limited and highly subjective point of view.
As wisely stated by George Bernard Shaw: "power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power."
Throughout the 1990´s, and also in the years before, I worked closely with my dear friend and mentor in reconstructive and aesthetic plastic surgery, Professor Ulrich Hinderer (1924-2007). We worked together at the Mirasierra Clinic for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the German Hospital of Madrid, The Humana International Hospital of Madrid, and the Ruber International Hospital of Madrid - all in Mirasierra, Madrid.
Professor Hinderer and I also worked together on the staff of the educational and organizing committees of the IPRAS (International Confederation of Plastic, Reconstructive, and Aesthetic Surgery) and the ISAPS (International Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery), which he created and presided.
One IPRAS international congress went on for eight hours a day and lasted for a full week at the Palacio de Congresos in Madrid, Spain - right across from the Santiago Bernabeu Football Stadium. I vividly remember how a large and wonderful group of elite plastic surgeons from around the globe attended the first welcoming session.
When Professor Hinderer concluded his brief but warm welcoming speech, one of the plastic surgeons asked him for permission to address the audience. His country had been going through some extremely rough social and political times for many years - including a terrible and pointless war - and he simply "had to get it off his chest."
To my surprise his well chosen words consisted of a joke-like tale which linked foolishness to power and authority. Though it was clearly meant to be a joke, he was dead serious and not one of us dared to laugh. Following is a transcript of those very same words.
Once upon a time there was a man walking calmly along the roadside when he heard someone approaching. He looked over his shoulder and saw the silhouette of a man in a state of panic running on the road.
As the runner came near he asked him to stop and asked: "why are you running as if your life depended on it? The runner answered: “The devil, man, the devil himself is chasing me, I´m scared to death.” Upon blurting out those words the runner took off and continued running for his life.
Sixty seconds later he heard footsteps and again he took a look over his shoulder. This time he saw the silhouette of an ugly looking figure running all-out on the road. As the runner came near he asked him to stop and asked: "why are you chasing that scared man up ahead?" And the ugly figure answered: "I am the devil, the worse and most evil of all, and I am not chasing that poor man.” Then: “What are you doing?,” asked the man. The devil responded: "I am running for my life from someone who is by far much more dangerous and evil than me.”
The man responded with a loud and long: “NO WAY!,” and asked the devil again: “You mean to tell me that you, the devil himself, are running for your life from someone who is more unpredictable, dangerous, crazy, immoral, bolder, and evil than you?” The devil quickly answered: “Yes, precisely, please let me continue running or he will catch up and destroy me.”
The man, now very curious, had time to ask the devil one last question: “Who or what can possibly scare you, the devil himself, in such a way?” The devil looked the man straight in the eyes and said: “A FOOL WITH POWER !”
This simple article is absolutely neutral in nature, and it is so in all forms and aspects. It does not point to any specific person, nor group of persons, nor ideologies. Its only objective is to define a series of key terms to which many of us may relate on a daily basis.
Some individuals are simply “fools with power.” They leave their incompetent and negative mark in all settings, situations, and conditions. They are characterized by their innate incompetence as well as their incapacity to make the right decisions and/or the capacity to incur in errors and mistakes. According to Blaise Pascal: "reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools."
Ok, a “fool with power,” what exactly is a fool with power?
A fool is defined as a silly or ignorant individual - a person whose ignorance makes him very bold in everything he does. Benjamin Franklin once said: "Wise men don´t need advise and fools won´t take it;" and William Shahespeare: "When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools."
The term "fool" stems from Old French for a madman or insane person, a rogue, or a jester. From there we have that a fool is a person who acts unwisely or imprudently. Synonyms for the term “fool” are: jackass, halfwit, nincompoop, blockhead, and buffoon, amongst others. For example a highly competent and talented artist/sculptor can spend ten years of his life sculping a beautiful marble statue and a fool can totally destroy it with his hammer in only twenty minutes. However, and according to Horace: "The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes."
Ever hear the saying: “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread?” Those words were written by the British poet Alexander Pope in: “An Essay on Criticism,” published in the year 1709. The implicit meaning is that rash and inexperienced individuals will attempt or take on things that wiser people are more cautious of. By “wise” or “wisdom” we mean: “the exercise of good judgement, acting on experience, common sense, and the available information.” However, and by deffinition, the fool considers himself as wise and others as stupid. Those who know themselves well and who fully realize their folly are not true fools - in fact they stand on the threshold of wisdom.
Psychology has tried to make objective use of five terms to indicate a spectrum of various degrees of abnormality. In general, we can say that there are five categories: 1.- moron; 2.- imbecile, 3.- idiot; 4.- stupid; and 5.- fool. Human nature is such that there are many different words to express such abnormalities. Since the vocabulary of insult is always great, most such words are slang.
A moron is only mildly deficient and is capable of connected thought and speech. He is also capable of doing certain useful work under supervision. The term was adopted in 1910 by psychologists, and is derived from the Greek “moros” which means “stupid.” In general it refers to a person who is notably of low intelligence or lacking in good judgment. It relates to a person of borderline intelligence in a former and discarded classification of mental retardation. Such persons normally have an IQ of 51 to 70. However, the term “moron” is no longer in technical use since it is now considered offensive.
An imbecile is more seriously mentally retarded than a moron and has an IQ of 26 to 50. An imbecile cannot be trusted to do useful work even under supervision, but is capable of connected thought and speech. Whereas the term moron has always applied to mental deficiency, imbecile referred originally to physical deficiency since the word is derived from the Latin “in” which means “not” and “baculum” which means "staff.” In essence it reffers to a person too weak to get along without a staff. In the modern meaning, it is the mind that cannot get along without outside assistance. The term "imbecile" was popularized by psychologist Henry H. Goddard.
An idiot is an individual who is more seriously mentally retarded than the moron or the imbecile and has an IQ of 0 to 25. An idiot is not capable of connected thought nor speech, or of guarding himself against the ordinary dangers of life. This word appears to have the oldest history of all. As we all know, the ancient Greeks were the extremely political people. Concerning oneself with public business was the favorite passtime of practically everyone.
The Greek word “idios” means “private” so a Greek who, despite all this, was strange enough to concern himself with only his private business rather than with public business was considered an “idiotes.” The Greek view concerning such an individual is very obvious since “idiotes” and “idiot” are virtually the same word.
The term stupid comes from Latin “stupere” which means “to be stupefied or rendered speechless.” Here the implication is of someone without words. A stupid person, therefore, is not capable of conected thought nor speech – in fact he has no speech capacity. Currently, the term points to an individual who shows a form of pointless mental dullness, who is anoying or irritating, and who is tedious and senseless.
A fool, finally, represents one of the more colloquial terms. The term comes from Latin “follis” which means “bellows” implying that a fool is someone whose words, though many and loud, are virtually empty air. The slang expression “windbag” – a talkative person who communicates nothing of substance or interest - seems to be the exact equivalent. Fools are perfectly capable of connected thought and speech, but curiously enough they are have sufficient intelligence to do very foolish things and can be potentially dangerous.
Why does this psychological phenomenon appear in fools?, ... perhaps the Dunning-Kruger Effect has something to say about it.
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their capacity to perform well. The effect is related to the cognitive bias of illusory superiority and comes from the inability of people to recognize their lack of ability. Such persons tend to overestimate their own level of skill and at the same time fail to recognize genuine skill in others. They fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy and cannot recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill. The effect is named after researchers David Dunning and Justin Kruger, the two social psychologists who first described it.
Dunning and Kruger suggest that this phenomenon stems from what they refer to as a "dual burden." People are not only incompetent; their incompetence robs them of the mental ability to realize just how inept they are. Incompetent people tend to overestimate their skill leves and underestimate those of others. It is a type of cognitive bias in which people believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are. Essentially, low ability people do not possess the skills needed to recognize their own incompetence.
The combination of poor self-awareness and low cognitive ability leads them to overestimate their own capabilities. The term lends a scientific explanation to a problem that many people immediately recognize - that fools are blind to their own foolishness. As Charles Darwin wrote in his book The Descent of Man: "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." Thus, the ignorance of the fool tends to be bold ... in fact extremely bold.
"In many cases, incompetence does not leave people disoriented, perplexed, or cautious," wrote David Dunning in an article for Pacific Standard. "Instead, the incompetent are often blessed with an inappropriate confidence, buoyed by something that feels to them like knowledge." This effect can have a profound impact on what people believe, the decisions they make, and the actions they take. Fools are incompetent people that tend to: 1.- overestimate their own skill levels; 2.- fail to recognize the genuine skill and expertise of other people; and 3.- fail to recognize their own mistakes and lack of skill; and 4.- are extremely bold within their ignorance.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is also related to difficulties with metacognition, or the ability to step back and look at one's own behavior and abilities from outside of oneself. People are often only able to evaluate themselves from their own limited and highly subjective point of view. From this limited perspective, they seem highly skilled, knowledgeable, and superior to others. Because of this, people sometimes struggle to have a more realistic view of their own abilities. A little knowledge can lead to overconfidence.
So who is affected by the Dunning-Kruger effect? Unfortunately, we all are. This is because no matter how informed or experienced we are, everyone has areas in which they are uninformed and incompetent. You might be smart and skilled in many areas, but no one is an expert at everything. The reality is that everyone is susceptible to this phenomenon, and in fact, most of us probably experience it with surprising regularity. The Dunning-Kruger effect is not synonymous with low IQ. However, being a fool is quite another thing.
So if the incompetent tend to think they are experts, what do genuine experts think of their own abilities? Dunning and Kruger found that those at the high end of the competence spectrum did hold more realistic views of their own knowledge and capabilities. However, these experts actually tended to underestimate their own abilities relative to how others did.
Having said that, and in all wise decisions, the “urgent” should never substitute the “important,” and independently of the wiseness and/or the level of risk involved, "chance will always favor the prepared and non-foolish mind." We say this because a fool, by definition, is neither wise nor has a prepared mind. However, fools have an uncanny ability to hide in the high places of society.
Power, on the other hand, is not an institution and also not a structure. Neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with. It is the name that one attributes to a complex strategical situation in a particular society. According to John Kennedy: "Sometimes the majority means all the fools are on the same side."
When we think of the word ''politics'' or ''political'' we immediately think of the intense competition and rivalry among politicians. In many respects the word ''politics'' has become a sort of dirty word. A word that often carries a negative connotation to define an individual who often: “uses infinite words to describe indefinite situations and goals.” However, most politicians are certainly not fools with power and thus do not fit that description at all.
In its most general sense, the concept of politics appears to be much broader since it refers to the state of affairs and the activities surrounding the acquisition of or the implementation of power. However, and having said this, one simply has to get all the fools on his or her side in order to be appointed to anything and everything. Funny how this world of ours works.
Ok, power, what is it and how does it relate to political power?
Power is central to politics. Political power is the ability to control the behavior of people through the passage, approval, and implementation of laws and regulations. It´s also the ability to influence the outcome of events. Political power enables people or groups to control the policies, functions, and culture of society.
On another line, the term “authority” identifies political legitimacy, which grants and justifies the right to exercise power of government, while the term “power” identifies the ability to accomplish an authorized goal, by way either of compliance or of obedience. From there we have that authority concerns the right and the power to make key decisions.
From all of the above we come to the conclusion that a fool, any fool or group of fools, vested with power - and authority – are a extremely dangerous. This applies so much for a group leader, a teacher, a principal, a dean, a mayor, a law officer, a governor, or whatever. The take-away lesson here is that we should be very critical and extremely careful with the thoughts and behaviors of those invested with power.
All of us wish to live lives filled with order, peace, prosperity, and serenity. But a fool´s intrisic bitterness, anger, and foolishness makes such an environment an impossible venture. In the language of emotions, frustration leads to controlled anger, and controlled anger eventually leads to uncontrolled all-out rage. In the words of Albert Einstein: "Anger lies only in the bosom of fools."
Oftentimes, and although our varied life philosophies may point in a certain direction, we might be conveniently redirected towards another path. Others simply have no direction at all and believe in the general philosophy that only includes "happy people." In the joke-like and not so joke-like tale that served as an introduction to this humble article, the frightened devil was excercising great wisdom by keeping a prudent distance from a fool with power.