The Intersection of Smart/Dumb and Brave/Cowardly

A 2x2 framework comparison

A few recent events got me thinking about how sometimes brave acts are completely stupid. Namely, the new protest move of gluing your hand to the frames of famous artworks.

How is this supposed to work—meaning, how is this supposed to benefit the protester’s cause? From a practical standpoint we could simply analyze its impact among three groups: those strongly opposed, those strongly supportive, and the presumably much larger group in the middle.

The strongly opposed (to the cause) are not going to be swayed by this. In fact they will likely become more determined with an awakened purpose and a new rally cry. More on this last point shortly.

The strongly supportive are already strongly supportive. The only benefit I can see is this might, might, give this group some encouragement seeing members of the cause doing something daring. Perhaps it just lets them know they are not alone in the fight. So this is a benefit, but…

The vast majority of people are not zealous in their views on oil. They exist along a wide spectrum ranging at the edges to each zealous group. In almost all cases, though, they probably won’t see this as either constructive or admirable. I think it is very likely this costs the cause within this broad group, and maybe does so to a significant degree. Notice they seem to be somewhat aware of this as they are gluing to the frames rather than the paintings themselves (see the P.S. below, however). This indicates they probably realize at least to that extent it would be a counter-productive move. This is what I was referring to above considering a new rally cry. Think: “These crazies are destroying works of art!”

If I am right, this would make the action a combination Dumb but Brave. Which raises the question, what are examples of the other three possible combinations. Here are my examples:

Links to the above (sorry, I don’t think Substack supports tables):

Smart/Brave: Harry Browne's Sept. 12, 2001 post

Dumb/Brave: Gluing hands to famous artworks as a protest

Smart/Cowardly: Uvalde police response to Robb Elementary massacre

Dumb/Cowardly: CA gov't et al. responses to COVID--closing outdoor activities, etc.

I’m not sure if my examples are indicative of the broader categories. Regardless, this does show that smart or brave alone is not enough for virtue.

P.S. Hypocrisy can’t be helpful.

P.P.S. Sadly, the Uvalde example is part of a much bigger problem.

P.P.P.S. If I were going to do a smart/brave action, my example in the 2x2 for that quadrant would have been the 9-11 terrorists, a la Browne’s comment in his 9-12-01 post.