The Age of Arrogance: Stupidity in the Early 20th Century

From the sinking of the Titanic to the end of World War II, the history of the 20th century conforms to and confirms the behavioral model of stupidity as the learned inability to learn: That is a normal, dysfunctional learning process which occurs when a schema formed by linguistic biases and social norms acts via the neurotic paradox to establish a positive feedback system which becomes first self-sustaining and then renders behavior irrelevant to the environment by carrying detached actions to maladaptive excesses.