Stupid is as stupid does

 

Just read something disturbing about the train derailment in Ohio. Looks like it could have been prevented, but nobody did anything about it.

Could it be another sign of the times? That is to say, with something that could have prevented, yet wasn't: does it mean that the USA is in permanent decline? You could argue either way. There have been disasters before, and likely will be disasters in the future. A disaster isn't evidence of decline, but it isn't good either. Especially since it probably could have been prevented.

Then there are cases in which people really don't know what to do. Let's examine something once again that I mentioned previously. There are certain "knee jerk" reactions that have been cited. One of these is called "social proof". The way social proof works ( or doesn't) is when everybody reacts the same way in a certain novel situation.

You could take the COVID situation as an example of social proof. People started wearing masks. They wore masks because EVERYBODY ELSE DID. This is what is meant by social proof. The situation was novel, and nobody seemed to know what to do, so they did what everybody else did. The government did something stupid and mandated what was clearly ineffective even though they should have known better. Why? It was done elsewhere in similar situations, and these geniuses didn't know what else to do. Their peers in Asia did something similar in prior flu like situtations, so not knowing what to do, they did what the Asians did.

Could this have happened in Ohio? Maybe. If the evidence supports such a conclusion, it may well turn out to be the actual explanation for why people failed to do what was clearly indicated. Meaning this: That there was something definitely wrong, but nobody was taking action to correct the situation, so nothing was done to prevent what was clearly preventable. ( Or in the case of masks, did something clearly useless ( and stupid) because they didn't know what else to do.)

Social proof can be deadly. If everybody does the same thing because everybody else is doing it, then something really bad can happen. The moral of the story? Don't rely upon social proof as a clue to what to do even if "everybody is doing it". Sometimes you just have to use your own head, because that could make the difference between getting badly hurt or killed, or getting out of a situation in one piece.

Too bad somebody has to say this. What the heck? Maybe somebody will take heart from it and actually learn something. What a novel idea. /sarc