I’ve been pondering this question for a while now (see previous article) and I feel the need to output the results once more.

First off, I don’t like that name any more. The problem is not stupidity and it is intellectual elitism to call it that. I can see that now.

In fact, it might be better described as “the problem of intelligence”, because it is we of the intellectual class that have the problem. People normal intelligence don’t have a problem at all.

So let me re-frame the question : How do we, the intellectuals, deal with the fact that the world is populated by and run by people of normal intelligence, who are only stupid relative to us.

It is the biggest challenge we intellectuals face. To us, it seems like the world is run by idiots, because compared to us, it is. The world is not run by intellectuals, no matter how much we might wish it to be otherwise, and to be honest, it probably can’t be.

For one, it’s unclear exactly how big a proportion of the population we represent. We may not even have the numbers to fill all the countless leadership roles the modern world needs.

And even if we did, not all of us have leadership skills. In fact, given both systemic problems handling the exception and the fact that it is possible that being an intellectual automatically makes you less likely to have the necessary social skills because those circuits are being used for abstract reasoning, means the pool of intellectuals with leadership skills is likely to be quite small.

And of course, even if we had some way of honing in on exactly those people who have the full package, there’s a little thing called democracy of which I am quite fond. It would be lovely to have some way to make sure all jobs go to the right people, but in the real world, that’s simply impossible.

Plus, of course, intelligence and leaderships skills do not necessarily make one wise. If you think intelligence is hard to define, try wisdom.

So there is no workaround for the problem of being an intellectual in a world full of people who, from our point of view, are stupid people doing obviously stupid things. ^[1]

We can’t arrange to be in charge, and we tend not to be comfortable with our traditional role as mere advisers. Most of us really do want to help humanity, and see it prosper, but a lot of us have given up and become misanthropes because it can seem like an impossible task. The dream to use our wizard-like mental powers to improve the lot of humanity often dies when it turns out that humanity is not listening and would rather continue to grunt along like animals.

But there is a flawed assumption in that feeling, and that is the assumption is that these people, the regular folk of the world, could understand us and be enlightened and make life better for themselves but choose not to.

Maybe they literally cannot understand. To assume they can is to assume everyone has the same kind of mind as you do. But we know that isn’t true. Everything in an intellectual’s life points to them being different from everyone else.

Perhaps the real fault is in our own theory of mind. We just plain can’t think like normal people do. Not even as a thought experiment.

Or maybe we can, but deep down, we don’t want to, because the full burden of knowing just how large the gulf between us and them would be too damned depressing.

From the point of view of us cerebral types, the mind of people of normal intelligence are a much richer blend of intellect and emotion than ours. They do not have the highly developed abstract reasoning engines that intellectuals develop naturally. They have to make their decisions based on a much high percentage of emotion than any sort of intellectual would prefer.

Once we understand and accept this simple truth, the true model of how intellectuals should interact with the rest of humanity : not tyrannical, nor advisory, but parental.

Like parents, we can do our best to keep them out of danger and protect them from threats they don’t understand yet, but ultimately, they have to (and will) make their own mistakes and learn the hard way.

And we need to have the patience and courage to shake our head, sigh, then keep on parenting.

That’s the best that we can hope for. Know that, as with any form of parenting, there will be times when they don’t understand, don’t listen, or find themselves unable to resist doing the wrong thing even when they know it’s a bad idea.

That doesn’t mean you give up on them. That would be bad parenting indeed.

And obviously, this isn’t the sort of thing that we tell the people of normal intelligence (PONI’s) about. Adults don’t like being told they are being treated like children. In fact, they often behave quite childishly in response. Which makes sense, in a way.

Nobody resents being treated like a child more than a child, and we all have a child within us who remembers the long battle with grownups to be treated like an adult.

Regardless of the necessity of us not making a big deal over it, I still feel that viewing the PONIs as a parent does a child is the best way to view our role. It captures both the compassion and the frustration of our position, and reminds us that intellectually speaking, we have the advantage over our charges and that things always have to be simplified to the point where our “children” can understand.

Despite how it may seem, we really are the ones with the most power in the relationship.

And that makes us the ones with the responsibility.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.