The title says all. Not only here on NB, but everywhere on the internet and at my school. There's a self imposed Hierarchy that puts these so called "intelligent" people in front of everyone because they're pretty good with computers, math, science, etc. It seems humility and integrity mean nothing to anyone anymore. People gloating about how much they do for humanity and how smart they are. Close minded people everywhere. So I want to start with NB. Why do so many of you think you're either superior or smarter than others? And the same question applies to the subsequent internet as a whole, and the school setting as a whole.
Because I am.
Even when I do not try to be. I have something of a Midas touch when it comes to just about anything I put the slightest amount of effort into. I am instantly accelerated to the 90 percentile simply because I have basic observational skills and am not an insult to the notion of sentience.
I don't really view myself as superior. I view myself as the standard. It is those who cannot or will not achieve that same standard due to ignorance or complacency who are inferior.
"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." -Socrates
“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” - JK Rowling
These all have their truths.
But they also speak to the ideal as opposed to the reality. It was not nice and kind people who propagated our species. It was cuckoldry and deviousness. It was not the generous who survived times of shortages - but those who made careful allegiances and brokered their resources intelligently.
Only during times of plenty and general complacency of the populous are notions of the ideal advantageous to one's position. When the wine is flowing - buying a round gives you social networks to call upon. Being a patron gives you nodes within those networks to call upon. Being well-liked gives you power.
But complacency can only be temporary - because ideals are not reality and will not survive extended exposure to it.
Socrates was speaking to the fact that any intelligent person, upon discovering one fact - will realize a dozen new questions. Intelligence is, thus, not being able to regurgitate information - but being able to interpret the consequences of that information. The consequence of new information is a host of unknown bits of information. The more you know - the more questions there will be.
Though people generally like to try and say: "Well, someone who proclaims to be smart must not be" - it really means that there should never be a time where an intelligent person believes there to be no gaps in their knowledge or understanding of the world.
Which plays into the Socratic Method of teaching - whereby the teacher would ask open-ended questions that were not necessarily supposed to have answers - but rather expose that one can always find a new question - a new experiment or possibility to probe/explore.
But, stupid people have destroyed the meaning and genius of that idea, as well - using it to justify their stupidity rather than embrace the quest for knowledge.
And you can't always tell what a person's heart is by how they treat their "inferiors."
I could have a whole chamber full of women who I take care of very well. None of them have to worry about security, food, bills, etc - and they are even given the ability to run businesses or the hobby projects of their dreams.
If I try and broker marriages or child birth contracts for those women... what's that make it?
I'm taking care of them - seeing to their every need and as gentle and understanding as can be... and never force them into a contract they do not willingly accept...
Or what if they are simply having my children?
Does it make it something other than what it is?
Of course not. I've just changed the environment to be less objectionable and used subversion rather than domination.
Does that make me kind... or even more dangerous/cunning?
In the real world - it boils down to who has the kids who survive to be the most influential/successful. What is most influential/successful will vary with the times. Soon - it will be the time of warlords. After a century or two of that, it will be the time of Justicars. After about a century of that - it will be the time of Federalists. And about a century after that - it will be the time of Idealists. To be followed by Warlords once again.
Though there are micro-environments within the macroscopic picture that allow for different types of individuals to experience extreme success even when the macroscopic picture does not favor them.
It's the Red Queen. At any point where a particular 'establishment' is failing to make progress at a meaningful rate - the 'establishment' will collapse and be replaced by one that does see high rates of change (generally, this is somewhat cyclical, as the change that can be affected is related to the type of establishment - which means there is often a preferential replacement).
But, I'm getting off track, a bit, here.
The smart people are those who can operate well within one or two of those 'establishments.'
Then you have those of us who see the larger system and can become anything within it at will. Buddhism refers to this as the "outer path." We are fundamentally unnatural as we can observe nature in such a complete manner as to be able to, momentarily, transcend it.
Ultimately, though, we all fall within nature. Even those of us who are gods among peons and bishops cannot escape its rules and laws. And, more than likely - there is a tier of existence above our own.
