Bauer's Rule of Idiocracy

Of greater danger than nobody knowing what to do is a broadly held presumption that somebody does.

Source: “‘Idiocracy’ is a disturbingly prescient reflection of our current reality, not because nobody knows anything but because everybody thinks somebody does." ~ Jared Bauer

Bauer's Rule of Idiocracy arises in part from characteristics discussed in Erich Fromm’s “Escape From Freedom,” including a desire to defer to a trusted figure to escape the burden of having to puzzle out matters for which one is ill-equipped, the learning curve is steep, or information is at best incomplete.