Este livro precisa ser urgentemente atualizado, mas creio que seu autor já não poderá fazê-lo. Wanted writers for the job.
Segundo um resenhista, abaixo, o autor "criticizes his own folk - Americans - more than any other - specifically for our unwillingness or stupidity towards utilizing the amazing continent we were blessed with."
Se ele tivesse conhecido um personagem atual, ele teria milhares de "causos", para aumentar o seu livro de 574 páginas, para o dobro ou o triplo. PRA
A short introduction to the history of human stupidity
by Walter B. Pitkin (Author)
Hardcover – January 1, 1932
Product details
ASIN : B000859CG0
Publisher : Simon & Schuster: NY
Publication date : January 1, 1932
Edition : First Edition
Language : English
Print length : 574 pages
Item Weight : 2.4 pounds
Best Sellers Rank: #6,648,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Top reviews from the United States
Krit Hatton
5.0 out of 5 stars Very funny if you are a white man or just have a sense of humor about idiots
Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2008
Format: Hardcover
This is a great book. This is an offensive book. Offensive to everyone. You are stupid. I am stupid. Even the author claims to be stupid.
I bought a second edition copy of this tome for 12.50$ and it's one of the best reads i've had in a long time. First of all underneath the price were the cryptic words - early eugenics text. That guaranteed I had to buy it.
Written in 1932, it's a very thoughtful analysis of human stupidity, or stupor, to be more specific. You may be a genius, but you've certainly behaved stupidly many if not most of your life.
Human beings evolved stupid. The ancient days were hard and being clever didn't help you anywhere near as much as being tough and strong - both mentally and physically. Thus, our ancestors were dumb because being dumb was the way to survive. The person who could live through the horrors of living, loss, pain, failure, and defeat, without a struggle was the most likely to survive and breed.
This book, which is a prelude to an encyclopedia of human stupidity never published, has allot to teach you about yourself and others. It's descriptions of why certain people in certain places evolved to be a certain way is insightful and well thought out. The author is no mere kook. He speaks many languages and admires many cultures and civilizations other than his own. In fact, he criticizes his own folk - Americans - more than any other - specifically for our unwillingness or stupidity towards utilizing the amazing continent we were blessed with.
Geography is history is society.
The author, insofar as I can tell, is not racist by our modern standard. He is, however, unabashedly double plus UN-PC. His beef is not with any given race (he does seem to despise almost every creed, even Bhuddism - which he expresses great admiration for), he merely feels that well over two thirds of humanity are fools and at least one tenth are downright idiots or morons who are dragging this world down.
Got Milk?
Got Idiots?
If you've ever worked in a cubicle like I have then you know the answer is yes.
But all is not doom and gloom. There are no recomendations for forced sterilization programs or genocide. The author is perfectly aware that sentimentality is part and parcel to human nature and if the world has to slow down or stop so that the stupidest among us can keep up - well, thats just how things are and changing it via any dramatic method (genocide) would do more harm than good. At it's cruelest (which the author never suggests) wiping out whole cultures would mean wiping out the 10% worth saving for the good of mankind - no matter what the race.
If this is an "Early Eugenics" text then I clearly don't know what eugenics means today or meant in the 30's.
What makes this book a must read is this - it was written immediately prior to the second world war. It deals with the transmogrification of the ordinary man from a rustic dirt farmer into a cog in the vast industrial machine. You may think the author put's down mankind, but that's nothing compared to the devastation of the human psyche wrought by industrialization. Luckily, all those tedious industrial manufacturing jobs are gone now and we all serve instead as cogs in the even more demoralizing service industry.
Wheeeeee!!
Reading this book will convince you that nothing has changed since the industrial revolution. People are still as stupid as when they just walked off the farm and into the factory. Our schools are just as pathetic, run by the exact same kind of people he describes. Our politicians and politics haven't changed. In thirty years, we've made little, if any progress.
OK thats not true. We've made allot of progress, although our education system still seams geared towards raising idiotic young chumps who will buy anything they are told to buy. But the lions share of progressive ideas the author put's forth have been implemented. And they've been implenented mostly through government - something the author probably never woud have believed.
He's not a bigot, socialist, communist, partisan, eugenicist, racist, elitist, or philosopher. His ideas are very well thought out and articulated. This book will help you understand yourself and human kind in a way no modern author would ever dare to write about.
Who would admit that at least 1/3 of the people in this country are just plain dumb?
Nobody.
How hypocritical we are. We deny this simple fact while all the while basing almost every business model on the phrase "There is a sucker born every minute" and "See a fool use a fool."
Buy this book and read it. If you hate it and the author and me I bet it's because you are unwilling to accept the inherent flaws in yourself and the human race as a whole.
There are truly gifted humans - but even they can be stupid at times. Stupidity is relative. Every society has it's genius' and it's dummies, and a dummy in one society isn't necessarily a fool in another.
Read less
39 people found this helpful
https://www.amazon.com/short-introduction-history-human-stupidity/dp/B000859CG0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3V339LJ8ANBZS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.BJiCl3wm1M6IpFrXWnuVZw.rG19TtY0XTe5tqTV1QOSIicyUaRUAmfiOPB0WeKSPQ8&dib_tag=se&keywords=Walter+Pitkin%2C+A+Short+Introduction+to+the+history+of+Human+Stupidity&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1763698221&s=books&sprefix=walter+pitkin%2C+a+short+introduction+to+the+history+of+human+stupidity%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C349&sr=1-1
