If there was any value to being bright (and still retaining some of that after being hit on the head over and over again), it became lost in a disorganizational fugue only somewhat lessened by approaching middle age. There is no small grief for unrealized potential, but at the same time I‘ve come to realize that a large part of my inaction was founded upon a profound dissent with the acceptable order of things.
“He doesn’t want to play by the rules”
But if the rules are nasty, what does that say about him?”
Certainly, what you say about the truest American credo, Don’t Be Different, applies to the intelligent.
“You’re different. That bothers me. You’d better change.”
At the same time, seeing what systematic, multi-generational racial and gender prejudice has done to some of the people I know, I am forced to consider myself, as a person with a half-broken intelligence, still fairly lucky.
Of course, Socrates claimed that his wisdom consisted precisely in the fact that he knew he was ignorant, at least, ignorant of the big things, such as, definitions of wisdom, beauty, truth, courage, justice, prudence, friendship, piety, yes, piety, etc. He obviously knew some mundane things, too numerous to mention. Don't most of us?
In my experience, you're the first to proclaim so boldly on a public platform that you are very intelligent. Normally, a smart person is humble, no? Maybe not. Larry Summers, Mike Pompeo, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham seem cocky about their IQs. But they are humbugs all, and, granted, probably have lots of grey matter, better to marshall their evil artistry more successfully.
What, more precisely, do you base your much above-normal intelligence on? Being moved up a grade in school a year early? My mother was promoted in such a way twice. And no one loves their mother more than me, but she wasn't that smart. My dad won every political argument they ever had on the merits, which I noticed early on. He was just right; she was just wrong: The facts and logic were on his side.
So is your laurel deserved? I don't know; you write well, use big words correctly, but that's a relatively easily learned skill (I taught college English, so I've seen it; just keep reading, writing, and getting some constructive criticism, and the magic happens to those that do so).
However, even if self-deluded, you seem an affable chap, so I enjoyed your gambit here; it was strikingly different. Keep up the good work. Talk soon maybe.
Ah, rhetorical question: You don't care what they think, and well that you shouldn't, by my dim lights anyway. Nonetheless, tens of millions of Americans care what they think. Can 70+ million voters be wrong? And if you believe that they could be, is it wise to remain in such a dangerous society? I hear the siren calls of exits tempting me to radically change my location.
These networks purveyors of fraud are objectively pandering lies to whoever will believe them. They know they are lies. Joseph Goebbels appeared to believe what he said, give him credit. Is it somehow elitist, woke or high-handed to despise them, or the audience that chooses willful ignorance?
They don't choose to be misled; they don't know any better. Poorly educated, with low IQs, they were duped by professional brain-washers over many years.
For thousands of years still to this day, hundreds of millions of average people, even brilliant philosophers and scientists believed in gods, demons, angels, heavens, and hells. Isaac Newton believed that metals vegetate, that the whole cosmos/matter is alive and that gravity is caused by emissions of an alchemical principle he called salniter. Laughable today, but before he was 26, he had discovered the laws of gravity, invented calculus, and more. His IQ was off the charts, maybe the smartest person ever, so virtually all the rest of us were stupider, so, yeah, average and below-average people are going to believe in all sorts of superstitions and be swayed by effective propaganda: "We are the super race": "God has chosen us as his favorites"; "Jesus is going to return in glory at any minute"; "Democrats are communists and will destroy America"; "only Trump can save us."
Nonetheless, many of them are not only counterproductive when it comes to authentic progress, they are violent, dangerous, armed and ready to fight. Fascists, one might say. And, yet like a child spending too much time with bad company, they became ruined, not out of choice per se, but by making a series of bad decisions. It's a mass tragedy of the highest order and of the worst sort. In olden times, we would say that they were possessed, and in a sense, that's a proper metaphor.
Granted, but the sting of life is too painful, beyond endurance; therefore, we must have relief, physical and psychological, so we build shelters to keep us warm and dry, and religions to keep us diverted and hopeful for better things. We hoi polloi can no more do without guiding, sedating fictions than we can do without comfortable shelters; very few of us are philosophers; many of us are neurotic or psychotic. In short, fantasies perform a service; they are pragmatic, but there's often hell to pay when they unfold into nightmares, much like my first marriage and all my jobs.
We observe intelligence in other animals and can discuss it rationally without too much prejudice. We have a fondness towards the cute and smart, that’s true. But amongst our species, it becomes laden with prejudice.
I was intelligent once, too. A lot of good it did me!
If there was any value to being bright (and still retaining some of that after being hit on the head over and over again), it became lost in a disorganizational fugue only somewhat lessened by approaching middle age. There is no small grief for unrealized potential, but at the same time I‘ve come to realize that a large part of my inaction was founded upon a profound dissent with the acceptable order of things.
“He doesn’t want to play by the rules”
But if the rules are nasty, what does that say about him?”
Certainly, what you say about the truest American credo, Don’t Be Different, applies to the intelligent.
“You’re different. That bothers me. You’d better change.”
At the same time, seeing what systematic, multi-generational racial and gender prejudice has done to some of the people I know, I am forced to consider myself, as a person with a half-broken intelligence, still fairly lucky.
Does intelligence equate to wisdom?
Of course, Socrates claimed that his wisdom consisted precisely in the fact that he knew he was ignorant, at least, ignorant of the big things, such as, definitions of wisdom, beauty, truth, courage, justice, prudence, friendship, piety, yes, piety, etc. He obviously knew some mundane things, too numerous to mention. Don't most of us?
In my experience, you're the first to proclaim so boldly on a public platform that you are very intelligent. Normally, a smart person is humble, no? Maybe not. Larry Summers, Mike Pompeo, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham seem cocky about their IQs. But they are humbugs all, and, granted, probably have lots of grey matter, better to marshall their evil artistry more successfully.
What, more precisely, do you base your much above-normal intelligence on? Being moved up a grade in school a year early? My mother was promoted in such a way twice. And no one loves their mother more than me, but she wasn't that smart. My dad won every political argument they ever had on the merits, which I noticed early on. He was just right; she was just wrong: The facts and logic were on his side.
So is your laurel deserved? I don't know; you write well, use big words correctly, but that's a relatively easily learned skill (I taught college English, so I've seen it; just keep reading, writing, and getting some constructive criticism, and the magic happens to those that do so).
However, even if self-deluded, you seem an affable chap, so I enjoyed your gambit here; it was strikingly different. Keep up the good work. Talk soon maybe.
And the people you mentioned put on a minstrel show to entertain the rubes. Who cares what they really think?
Ah, rhetorical question: You don't care what they think, and well that you shouldn't, by my dim lights anyway. Nonetheless, tens of millions of Americans care what they think. Can 70+ million voters be wrong? And if you believe that they could be, is it wise to remain in such a dangerous society? I hear the siren calls of exits tempting me to radically change my location.
These networks purveyors of fraud are objectively pandering lies to whoever will believe them. They know they are lies. Joseph Goebbels appeared to believe what he said, give him credit. Is it somehow elitist, woke or high-handed to despise them, or the audience that chooses willful ignorance?
They don't choose to be misled; they don't know any better. Poorly educated, with low IQs, they were duped by professional brain-washers over many years.
For thousands of years still to this day, hundreds of millions of average people, even brilliant philosophers and scientists believed in gods, demons, angels, heavens, and hells. Isaac Newton believed that metals vegetate, that the whole cosmos/matter is alive and that gravity is caused by emissions of an alchemical principle he called salniter. Laughable today, but before he was 26, he had discovered the laws of gravity, invented calculus, and more. His IQ was off the charts, maybe the smartest person ever, so virtually all the rest of us were stupider, so, yeah, average and below-average people are going to believe in all sorts of superstitions and be swayed by effective propaganda: "We are the super race": "God has chosen us as his favorites"; "Jesus is going to return in glory at any minute"; "Democrats are communists and will destroy America"; "only Trump can save us."
Nonetheless, many of them are not only counterproductive when it comes to authentic progress, they are violent, dangerous, armed and ready to fight. Fascists, one might say. And, yet like a child spending too much time with bad company, they became ruined, not out of choice per se, but by making a series of bad decisions. It's a mass tragedy of the highest order and of the worst sort. In olden times, we would say that they were possessed, and in a sense, that's a proper metaphor.
Societies likely die by a final common pathway, by comforting themselves with unreal things.
Granted, but the sting of life is too painful, beyond endurance; therefore, we must have relief, physical and psychological, so we build shelters to keep us warm and dry, and religions to keep us diverted and hopeful for better things. We hoi polloi can no more do without guiding, sedating fictions than we can do without comfortable shelters; very few of us are philosophers; many of us are neurotic or psychotic. In short, fantasies perform a service; they are pragmatic, but there's often hell to pay when they unfold into nightmares, much like my first marriage and all my jobs.
We observe intelligence in other animals and can discuss it rationally without too much prejudice. We have a fondness towards the cute and smart, that’s true. But amongst our species, it becomes laden with prejudice.
So attractive demagogues are believed?