Ricardo’s Razor

Some of you may be familiar with Hanlon’s Razor. It is an aphorism that is frequently expressed as something along the lines of “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” Hanlon’s Razor is a fairly good principle, and I think it is frequently applicable in the realm of politics, but it’s a principle I don’t particularly like to use. You see, as a person with a hyperactive imagination I’m always coming up with alternative, and much more exciting, explanations for things. Real life is usually boring, so I feel the need to spice it up a bit. Thus I have created my own aphorism, which I call Ricardo’s Razor. Roughly stated, Ricardo’s Razor goes like this: “Never attribute to mundane reasons that which sounds much cooler when explained by dramatic reasons.”