even before Flaubert, people knew stupidity existed, but they understood it somewhat differently: it was considered a simple absence of knowledge, a defect correctable by education. In Flauberts novels, stupidity is an inseparable dimension of human existence..But the most scandalous thing about Flauberts vision of Stupidity..it does not give way to science, technology, modernity, progress; on the contrary, it progresses right along with progress!