Every single human being capable of higher thought is inhabited by a mental mechanism that predates humanity itself. Older than civilization. Older than primates. It likely accompanied any living being capable of even rudimentary abstraction. That mechanism is idiocy.
Yes—there is an idiot living inside every one of us.
And this idiot cannot be bargained with. It cannot be reasoned with, educated away, or gently talked down. It does not respond to facts, logic, or experience. The only thing that works is brute force: you crush it, shackle it, and lock it away in the deepest mental asylum you can construct. There it waits. Patiently. Quietly. For a lapse. For complacency. For comfort.
It is a slippery, wily creature. And very few people are capable of suppressing their inner idiot for extended periods—especially when no external pressure is applied. So few, in fact, that taken together they don’t even form a meaningful minority. Not politically. Not culturally. Not statistically.
This is why wealthy societies inevitably—always—get overrun by idiocy.
During the Cold War, fear kept the idiot partially contained. Not eradicated, but bottled up. The external threat imposed discipline. In poor societies, the mechanism is even simpler: survival pressure. It is remarkably difficult to indulge in idiotic abstractions when your stomach is empty and tomorrow is uncertain.
And here lies the irony. Idiocy ultimately creates the very conditions that suppress it. Scarcity. Collapse. Ruin. The idiot burns the house down—and then scurries back into its dungeon while humans rebuild, restore order, and recreate wealth. Just long enough for it to emerge again, refreshed and confident.
We cannot break this cycle. Anyone who claims otherwise is already possessed by the thing itself. But we can recognize it. Name it. Anticipate it. Survive it. Perhaps even extract meaning from it.
As for me, I would rather laugh madly in the ruins than spend my life madly fighting windmills.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/02/01/poor-nations-wont-follow-europe-un-in-economic-suicide/