Astonishing Gullibility

It is hard to reconcile poor governance with a population which is reasonably smart. The basic nature of reality does not admit such contradictions. The inescapable conclusion is that the population is not smart. Evidence of it is all around us to see but I would like to present an illustrative example — with a picture below the fold. It demonstrates the stupidity of some apparently educated — well, if not educated, at least literate — people which makes them so terrifyingly gullible. Never think that we collectively do not deserve the poor governance.

I have started receiving this forwarded by a few people I don’t know personally. By forwarding it, they are declaring that they are greedy, stupid and gullible. Their misapprehension of the world at so many different levels is so deep that it is frightening to think that these people actually work at jobs and vote in elections. Be afraid, be very afraid.

freelaptop

Author: Atanu Dey

Economist.

6 thoughts on “Astonishing Gullibility”

  1. Atanu, apparently you haven’t received the best of these forwards. Some Satya Sai Babas promise to curse you to eternal damnation if you do not forward a certain email to at least 11 people, and you are going straight to heaven if you do. Some other emails profess to immediately determine your personality and love life based on which flavor of ice cream you like, and well, some others (like the one you’ve received) have direct connections to either Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Just that, in your case, you receive these emails from people you don’t know. 🙂

    Like

  2. I agree with Sudipta,

    and the same phenomenon is now apparent through sms as well. Recently I met a gentleman in BSNL office, who has received a SMS saying “he had won a lottery from a British bank worth some million pounds”.

    He was asking BSNL officials if he should go ahead and send them 50k as processing fee.

    Dunia zukati hai zukane wala chahiye.

    Like

  3. Oh you haven’t seen this? The original version has been around since 1999 or 2000, and it referenced mobile phones then.
    This is as bad as the usual ‘Bill gates will send you money if you forward this.’
    One time I replied all, berating the lot of them for falling for this ancient hoax- and a few of them responded that they sent it on the off chance that it ‘might’ be true!!

    Like

  5. What would you say about this one:

    http://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/rude-impolite-insulting-and-extremely-hurting-treatment-at-icici-branch-c45794.html

    I am VIKAS s/o Mr. RAMESH KUMAR r/o N-147, Sec – 8, R.K. Puram, New Delhi – 110022. My mother’s name is Mrs. SHOBHA.
    First of all I would like to brief you my and my family’s association with your esteemed bank.
    · My mother’s VISA CREDIT CARD NO: 4477 4738 4300 0006
    · My VISA CREDIT CARD NO: 4477 4740 5729 3006
    · My MASTER CREDIT CARD NO: 5176 5385 0989 6003
    · My SAVING BANK ACCOUNT NO: 000 701 514 761
    · My joint (me and my mom) SAVING BANK ACCOUNT NO: 000 701 563 042
    · My ongoing HOME LOAN ACCOUNT NO: LBGHZ00001424486
    · My CAR LOAN ACCOUNT NO: LADEL00003891028 (Car No. is DL 9C N0527)
    · My PERSONAL LOAN ACCOUNT NO: LPDEL00009314613
    · My ICICI LOMBARD GENERAL INSURANCE POLICY NO: 4034/CHT/03478362/00/000

    Like

Comments are closed.

%d bloggers like this: