Are people wise or stupid?

Brett is reading The Wisdom of Crowds, and finds some nice connections to knowledge management. On KM and "The Wisdom of Crowds"

I'm not very far into the book yet, but as I understand it the wisdom of the crowds increases as the crowd becomes more diverse and each member of the crowd has private information that no one else has. The book also seems to be going down the path of arguing that in order for crowds to make good decisions, the members of the crowd should look out for number one and in the aggregate the crowd will make the best decision (for the crowd, not necessarily for the individual).

I can't help but think of "You might be smart, but people are stupid" (see note) from the movie Men in Black, when the wizened veteran is trying to explain human group reactions to the greenhorn.

Kind of the exact opposite of what Brett is reading and understanding. And, of course, the context between the two examples is completely different too. Or is it?

Note: the correct quote, at least according to IMDB is "A *person* is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."