I just saw a blog where someone attempted to prove there’s an idiot born every minute by using the example of one man and the idiotic thing he had just witnessed this man do. That doesn’t prove an idiot is born every minute at all! That is only proof of one idiot and possibly only temporary idiocy. For all I know, when the man finished his stupid misstep, he may have went right back to the lab where he was in the process of curing cancer.
Not that I am disinclined to this particularly theory. Stepping outside into the general population makes a person wonder if, perhaps, one a minute is a low estimate. Thanks to Rent, I can easily recall that one year is 525,600 minutes, which means over half a million idiots born across the world each year. That seems likely. Of course, I say this as the citizen of a country who reelected George W. Bush because he was doing such a kickass job in his first term.
Here’s my real sticking point on this.
Population of China – Over 1.3 billion, Idiots – <10
But then, it seems the U.S., the only country renowned for rewarding stupidity, has adopted some of China’s idiots as our own.
So, I’m thinking an idiot is indeed born every minute, but that some continents are more densely populated with them than others.
Thoughts? Arguments? Hate mail?
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Thoughts, yes
Arguments, maybe
Hate mail, never
From WikiAnswers: in 2007 there were 134 000 000 babies born/yr divided by 525 600 minutes/yr = 255 babies born/minute
For the sake of argument, let’s say that for the past 100 years roughly the same numbers of babies have been born each year. Also, let’s take other factors such as environment and genetics out of the equation. That gives us a sample of 255 people. Would that mean that about 0.39% of the population is idiotic? Somehow that seems low.
Then again, if we’re talking about pure idiots and excluding idiotic behavior and tendencies, maybe it’s right.
And where does that leave the village idiot? What about the sucker born every minute?
(Just so you know, in college, I gotta a C- in statistics, so my math is probably all wrong.)
November 3rd, 2008 at 6:35 pm
“So, I’m thinking an idiot is indeed born every minute, but that some continents are more densely populated with them than others.”
Not the idiot-theory per se, but I’ve always pondered over statistics such as (this obviously made up example) “one in four people have a bent left pinky.” Now I live in a family of four and I can safely say that none of us have bent, or otherwise non-straight, left pinkies. When gathered in a room of friends numbering a multiple of four, still none of us have bent left pinkies. Therefore the only conclusion I can come to (and this is probably some sort of philosophical fallacy) is that, somewhere else in the world, there is a whole population of people with bent left pinkies where the statistic will actually be “one in one persons has a bent left pinky.”
Surely this will apply to the Idiot Theory as well? But, then again, some people are very good at hiding idiocy until they’re alone at home. I’ve had years of practice, you see
And a disclaimer: just in case there is an actual statistic about people with bent left pinkies – I mean no offense.