is intelligence uncool?
POSTED BY: boris
UPDATED: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 12:44
VIEWED: 7460
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I'm thinking it must be. I mean there are so few people that seem open to admitting to possessing it without embarassment, or making some weak exscuse about it.. I am proudly intelligent. I don't wave it around like a " I'm so special hear me roar " flag, I just am intellectually inclined, so why should I dumb down just to fit in or make others more comfortable? ( something a well intentioned employer told me to do). My theory is that we all start off with the potential for greater intelligence, but that most of us sadly bow to social pressure, and lose it before adulthood. I have occassionally had parents of children I work with, ask me to use simpler language, so that their children aren't negatively influenced...regarding what exactly? expanding their minds? including a wider range of words in their vocabulary? what a tragedy that would be. I was also accused by a parent of being a fun nazi , because I only brought the playstation out once a month, and subjected the children to activities that shock! horror! made them try new things, and expand their skillbase. so what is so wrong about learning and mastering whatever skills you can, and then sharing them? I've vented I'm done, now I can get back to accepting that mediocraty is a comfort tool for most people.
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Yes, it is uncool. However, sometimes you can find a haven where you run into others like you - such as this board, for the most part.
In America, 40% of all teenage suicides are committed by those with IQs in the top 4 percent of the population. This speaks a great deal about the uncoolness of intellect.
I have chosen (long ago, around 18 or 20 years of age) to dumb down my vocabulary, solely in order to communicate with the rest of the population. Plus, at the time the people who were in position to control others (essentially, academians) were notimpressive to me, where highly incompetent and dumb, and used language as a tool of snobbery and exclusion. I wasn't interested in the goals of those types of people.
Although I believe firmly in kids having fun, playstation is not an example of much beyond parental laziness.
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I don't think it's uncool, so much as underrated. Plus, I think there's a difference between intelligence, wisdom and common sense.
I think it depends on how you perceive other people and treat them. If you treat them like idiots and kids and pander to them, then they'll be idiots and kids and people that only respond to base impulses. But if you treat them intelligently and engage them like they're on the same page, then more likely than not they'll respond in kind.
I know it's easy to say "Everyone's an idiot.", but I think you'd be more than surprised just to see how smart some people are at times. Case in point. On Boxing Day, I go have some drinks with some people from my hometown that I haven't seen in ages. During that time, one guy explains to me the various types of rocks and minerals he's into (he's a geologist) and at one point in a group discussion someone references Johnathan Swift's "A Decent Proposal". The one where his suggests to the Irish to eat their babies to offset the potato famine. And these are guys from small town Saskatchewan. The least likely group of people you'd expect to hear this kind of stuff come from. I left that bar with a lot more respect than before.
So while intelligence may not appear to be a prized virtue in mainstream society, you'd be surprised to see just how smart people can be at times.
There's actually a really cool Canadian documentary that came out a few years ago called STUPIDITY, that actually examines this very concern. You should find it. Over the end credits, there's this song by The Arrogant Worms that's about how various points in history happened due to bad decisions. And the chorus goes "History is made my stupid people, clever people wouldn't even try, if you want your name in the histroy books, then do something dumb before you die."
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"And it starts with a sentence that might last a lifetime, or it all might just go down in flames. If I let you know me, then why would you want me? Each day I don't is a shame. Each day I don't is a great shame."
Loudon Wainwright III - "Strange Weirdos" off the "Knocked Up" soundtrack
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I think intelligence is cool. It's one of my most looked for traits in people. It's a little underrated in certain circles of society.
I agree that wisdom and common sense are just as important and underrated as intelligence. In fact, I'd argue that common sense is less likely to be found in highly intelligent people.
I'm stealing mwp's story...In a college speech course, students were asked to interview then introduce another student to the class. After all was said and done, only two students enjoyed reading and had a favorite book. Most of the students stated that they did not enjoy learning or reading. That's sad.
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Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."
-- Charlie Brown
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Quote:
Originally posted by jewelstaitefan:
In America, 40% of all teenage suicides are committed by those with IQs in the top 4 percent of the population. This speaks a great deal about the uncoolness of intellect.
Just because someone commits suicide and is also intelligent doesn't mean s/he did this because of it or its so called lack of cool.
Ultimately, I don't think it's uncool. I'm not sure if I would blatantly categorise it as 'cool', because it depends where you are and who you're talking to, I guess, but even that assumption can lead to surprises, as ReginaRoadie was communicating. It's a respectable and admirable trait, there's no reason why someone should think otherwise. However, in some situations it can be alienating and therefore thought of as lessening a person's 'social' coolness and ability to socialise with others.
Then again, at most of the schools I've gone to the people who have been respected and considered cool were definitely the most intelligent ones (or at least among them), whether they were cool for their intelligence or not.
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I get what you all are discussing. I went to school in the south and had a hard time of it. In my school if you pronounced a single word in the english language correctly they would pretty much beat the living $#!* out of you. I barely got out of elementary. I am not kidding. My parents got worried I wasn't being challenged enough around 7th grade and started homeschooling me. I finished in half the time it would have taken me if I had survived High School.
I mean seriously, reading and basic math should be taught in kindergarten. I distinctly remember thinking something along the lines of "WTF paper and glue?". Ok I didn't think WTF but if I had known that then I probably would have. When I entered preschool I was already reading, tying my own shoes, telling time(Not just on digital) and doing basic math. My older sister used to come home from school and teach me everything she learned that day. She thought I never got it and used to tell my parents I was stupid... haha.
People aren't stupid, our culture here in America and in many other countries, is. I mean freedom and independence are awesome and very important but education and creativity are sorely frowned upon by "The Man". I'll never "dumb down" to fit into any crowd. If I have to then I'm already one of the "stupid folk". IQ has nothing to do with wisdom or common sense. I even propose common sense doesn't really exist. I just say sense. Unfortunately these days it's not exactly common anymore. Wisdom on the other hand is ones ability to learn from mistakes and success alike, not just your own but from others as well. Wisdom comes with learning, not age. I've met enough juvenile, idiotic people 50+ to know the difference. It's not something you automatically get when you turn 40 like some people seem to think.
Not to fear though we are not alone. There is in fact intelligent life on this planet. You just have to look around. Just because that guy on the corner looks like a redneck doesn't mean he is one. Well he could be a smart redneck anyway. That punk by the drugstore trying to get booze off of college dudes might have an IQ of 186. The old receptionist at your local doctors office might be a Nobel Prize Laureate. Ok probably not but she maybe could have been. The trifecta of wisdom, intelligence and sense are a rare gift indeed.
My point is intelligence is not something one wears it's something one may possess. The key is being open and accepting of others different than yourself. If everyone tried to do that more often the world would be a much better place.
Now comes the part where you all beat me for being a girly gay brainiac or something.
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"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." Albert Einstein
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Intelligence hasn't been under such a sustained and vigorous attack since the dark ages. How else do you explain the rise of words like "truthiness" and the power grabs of religious organisations (disclaimer: you can be incredibly intelligent and religious (qv Einstein); however there are many churches now actively campaigning against not just evolution but other parts of science related to it because it is "biased", including teaching how viruses evolve, something we witness every year - unless of course you believe God changes the Flu virus each year to punish the week).
Here in the UK teachers are trying to introduce ideas such as abolishing "fails" and replacing them with "yet to pass". Those who display intelligence or knowledge get attacked as "boffins" or "ivory tower eggheads". The newspapers promote untested scientific theories, sometimes with fatal results - the take-up of MMR jabs has fallen dramatically due to the press pushing the work of one very discredited "scientist".
Sorry. Pet peeve topic this. I like the following distinction between knowledge and wisdom: it is knowledge to understand that a tomato is a fruit but it is wisdom not to put one in a fruit salad.
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I think the whole issue is more complex than "Being smart is uncool" or "They are oppressing smart people" or whatever the popular response is.
Intelligence is in a great part genetic. That's why some four-year-olds will be wanting to read and write while others are still far away from such desires. Children are not all the same and the fact that they depend on outside support (teaching) to deal with their particular level means that the less individually they are cared for in that regard, the more likely trouble will ensue because some do not share the level of most others in their age group in either direction.
Feeling bored or overwhelmed both cause negative feelings. Those cause negative behaviors and attitude which is why highly intelligent kids often act out. I'm sure the same is true for those who cannot keep up. In turn, they cause negative feelings about themselves in others.
Both ends of the spectrum tend to be met with prejudice and meet the "average kids" with prejudice. It's all a completely normal social development. I'm sure it's existed since school classes were invented. That's something that should be looked at.
As for things like reading and academic inclinations - yes, they are to be encouraged. But you can be intelligent without reading and you can read without being highly intelligent. It's a tool to further knowledge and language but it's not the only one. People never bothering to read to their kids and teach them to appreciate that skill is bad, yes. But so is this over-emphasis of intelligence, as if all people truly are great philosophers at heart and should feel bad for letting their talent go to waste if they don't give a flying spacemonkey's backside for reading more than a book or two a year.
People have this fetish with intelligence and IQ. The book-smarter the better. That's just as bad as "nerds are uncool".
The people with the greatest social intelligence I have ever met were not those who holed up with a book, but those who did all those "average" things that unpopular people like to look down on.
The people with the most functional lives were the "average" crowd - not extremely intelligent, not extremely unintelligent.
The people creating the most fascinating art, travelling to cool places, making unusual choices, raising the happy kids...all "average".
Intelligence in the academic "read a book" sense is hardly everything.
What I'm trying to say is, that we should stop overfocusing on the inherent value of certain qualities and trying to push people in either direction. Sure, some basic spectrum of skills needs to exist, but social development is just as important as academic, physical self-awareness is just as important as philosophical self-awareness. We keep rating kids on lines from 1 to 10 instead of multi-dimensionally and then we complain when the general focus doesn't fall where we want it to. When not all kids will strive for that 10 because they are busier growing in other ways. Or when those near the ten feel that their top-status does not coincide with a top-happiness, success or social adjustment reward.
Geez.
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Intelligence is only uncool when you are with people who do not understand its greatness. To dumb yourself down so that you fit in with a group of people is a travesty. You are taking away a big part of what makes you, you.
As a teacher, I would be offended if a parent told me to dumb down the way I speak. That is why we have so many things going wrong in our society today. Because we are allowing these kids to take the easy way out. Start them off early and give them a chance to explore how great intelligence can be.
Throwing out statistics about how many intelligent kids have committed suicide is a non factor. If 40% of them have done this, then that still leaves 60% of the suicides to unintelligent people. I guess we should not be intelligent because so many serial killers are too, right? I fit every single characteristic of a serial killer. The one I'm most proud of is my intelligence. And last time I looked, I hadn't killed anyone.
If the unintelligent people want to stay that way, let them. But there is no reason to not think that being intelligent is uncool.
Simon: What if he(Mal) tells you to kill me?
Zoe: (without hesitation) I kill you.
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Quote:
Originally posted by lysander:
I fit every single characteristic of a serial killer. The one I'm most proud of is my intelligence. And last time I looked, I hadn't killed anyone.
You've tortured and killed animals for pleasure? ;)
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