I came across a very disturbing comment while reading about Houston’s new Mensan mayor, Annise Parker, in the latest issue of the Mensa magazine. “Espousing being smart is essentially political suicide.” That certainly explains a lot, doesn’t it.
Why does our society not value intelligence? Is it a sort of Julius Caesar Syndrome? Caesar was murdered by fellow politicians because they felt the people revered him so much that it threatened their ideal of a future democracy. The people loved Caesar to the extent that the amount of power he had over them was unacceptable for one man to have, so he was killed for the good of society, the people’s own good.
Love equal power. Intelligence is a different kind of power, but just as strong. Do we mistrust all people with power? And yet, we love, willingly allowing those we love a power over us.
I think the answer is even more complicated because there are so many types of intelligence. Those that win elections, score the best jobs, and advance in our society, have high “emotional intelligence,” also known as “people skills.” Those with straight “book smarts” don’t do so well; they may even fall far short in the “people skills” area. They do not win popularity contests.
I am reminded of a depressing little ditty of John Lennon’s, “A Working Class Hero Is Something to Be.” Look at the political ads that appeal to us. This is what we like to elect.
“They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,
They hate you if you’re clever and they despise a fool,”
Granted, sometimes we’re fooled and elect someone wily as a fox who talks a good dumb game i.e. Clinton. And this may be the exact thing we fear as a populace – the duplicity. But mostly, we get stoopid because that’s who we feel comfortable with handling the “reigns.”
They can’t be too powerful.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment