Any popular idea or belief must be dumb or at least have a dumb version! For an average Joe to like something, subscribe to it, believe in it or pay for it, it has to be something he appreciates and can relate to. That’s why Harry Potter sells for millions but Kant’s “Critique of pure reason” is only read by few! That may also explain the reason behind so many dumb politicians on world stage today (Spare me from naming names but if you are an Iranian living in US you should have no difficulty coming up with couple of examples!). The curse of mediocrity has it’s roots in statistics’ normal (bell curve) distribution! For lack of a better term I borrow the expression “Law of large numbers” from the statisticians to explain what I mean. In social context the law reads as follows: Anything that is believed by, subscribed to or is appealing to a large number of people naturally and “normally” lacks sophistication. This is just a raw idea so take it easy and don’t read too much into it!
