Since time immemorial, philosophers, economists, and conspiracy theorists have devised a vast number of theories about the nature of society and the motivations of human behavior. From the ideas of Adam Smith to Karl Marx, most of these models depend (at least somewhat) on the idea of rational human agents working to achieve reasonable outcomes for themselves, their community, or society. But they are wrong.
Everyone's Dumb Now (And How You Don't Have to Be)
There are also books written about how to successfully interact with other people, but most of them assume that the person you are talking to is a relatively intelligent, functional person, even though that is probably not the case. You probably aren't either.
In practice, people are stupid, lazy, and act as if they were insane, and all human endeavors are the result of that trio of nearly universal traits. So we should view the world accordingly.
Nobody, not even rich powerful people, plays 3D chess. People hardly ever play 2D checkers.
