Lack of self awareness is not a contemporary phenomena. "Man... knows only when he is satisfied and when he suffers, and only his sufferings and his satisfactions instruct him concerning himself, teach him what to seek and what to avoid. For the rest, man is a confused creature; he knows not whence he comes or whither he goes, he knows little of the world, and above all, he knows little of himself." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “We will gradually become indifferent to what goes on in the minds of other people when we acquire a knowledge of the superficial nature of their thoughts, the narrowness of their views and of the number of their errors. Whoever attaches a lot of value to the opinions of others pays them too much honor.” Arthur Schopenhauer Carlo Maria Cipolla, an economic historian, is famous for his essays about human stupidity. He viewed stupid people as a group, more powerful by far than major organizations such as the Mafia and the industrial complex, which without regulations, leaders or manifesto nonetheless manages to operate to great effect and with incredible coordination. Cipolla's five fundamental laws of stupidity: 1 Always and inevitably each of us underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation. 2 The probability that a given person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic possessed by that person. 3 A person is stupid if they cause damage to another person or group of people without experiencing personal gain, or even worse causing damage to themselves in the process. 4 Non-stupid people always underestimate the harmful potential of stupid people; they constantly forget that at any time anywhere, and in any circumstance, dealing with or associating themselves with stupid individuals invariably constitutes a costly error. 5 A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person there is.