Pre-Western Stupidity

Abstract

The story of civilized stupidity began with civilization. From the beginning, it has been a story of maladaptive, pretentious claims to eternal grandeur with each case becoming something more than just a tragedy[1] for those involved if it also became a lesson wasted on those who followed. Usually, the specific examples repeated a generally cyclical pattern of conquerors becoming civilized and weakened–as evidenced by declining bone size and strength[i]–by easy affluence and internal strife until they were conquered in turn by later bands of invading nomads. World history is thus a story unpleasant things repeated over and over again[ii] as religious fanatics found they could achieve at most behavioral conformity but not induce desired changes of well-rooted beliefs. Old rulers and ruling classes would thus be replaced by new versions without anything fundamental changing, and then the process would begin again.[iii] So were the Sumerians swallowed up, their genes dispersed through interbreeding and their languages lost as they gave way to the Semites who gave way to the Aryans, with the Persians dominating until the time of Alexander (ca. 330 B.C.).[iv]