There is a question that every person of above-average intelligence (we will call such people “intellectuals” for the purpose of this article) has to resolve for themselves, and it is deceptively simple but its implications run deep into the very bedrock of an intellectual’s psyche.

And the question is this : Are they stupid, or are you smart?

Because it can’t be both. The most natural thing for any human being confronted with actions that seem inane, pointless, or downright stupid is to conclude that the person doing said actions is stupid.

From that, it is clear why a person of above average intelligence might easily fall into the trap of thinking the average person is stupid. Compared to you, they are.

But stupid can reasonably be said to mean “below average intelligence” and therefore it is, by definition, impossible for the average person to be stupid. The average person cannot be below average. That is as silly as the old Lake Woebegone “..and all the children are above average” joke.

Still, the narrow minded intellectuals who are bound by an excessively egocentric point of view continue to conclude that the average person is of below average intelligence, and much bitterness, elitism, rage, misanthropy, and waste of human potential results.

And yet, if being dumber than you means that someone is stupid and therefore below average intelligence, that must mean you are of average intelligence, right?

But ask your average (ha!) intellectual if they think they are of average intelligence, and you will mostly likely get a very indignant denial. They are definitely smart, not average. How dare you even ask?

So again : which is it? Is it that they are average and you are smart (above average), or is it that they are stupid and you are average?

It logically cannot be both.

And this is important, because it is the bitterness and anger towards stupidity (and those “stupid” average people) which results from this unresolved issue that causes many a worthy intellectual to give up on humanity and the humanist endeavor, and thus, the cause of improving human life loses the full effect of their contribution.

It is fortunate that modern human societies tend to organize themselves so that an individual’s contribution eventually gets distributed to all of humanity anyhow. And human nature dictates that even the crankiest and most curmudgeonly misanthrope is still going to want approval and recognition at least from the peers they have allowed into their monkeysphere.

Still, it is a sad thing for this human race when the best and brightest fall into the pitfall of misanthropy (the opposite of humanism, and for the record, you can’t be both a humanist and a misanthrope. You have to pick there, too.) So how to we prevent it?

That is a tricky question. Clearly, someone needs to reach above-average children in their formative stages, before the habits of misanthropy have become too entrenched in their identities, and put them on a better path both for them and for humanity.

After all, misanthropy not only makes a person bitter and angry, it makes it very hard for them to connect to those other human beings for whom they have such contempt, and all of modern behavioral science indicates that the strongest indicator for happiness is connection with others. The more positive connections with have with others, the happier we are.

Compared to connection, other things like wealth, status, and success are weak indicators indeed.

So for humanist reasons, people need to be rescued from the understandable but extremely unfortunate path of elitism, bitterness, and misanthropy, and redirected to the path of egalitarianism, warm human connection, and true philanthropy – love of humanity.

The first and most pressing step towards preventing the best and brightest from falling by the wayside is to take all the steps necessary to prevent bullying. The fact that the academically gifted are often tortured and assaulted by their peers is a profound injustice and something we would clearly not tolerate an adults, and yet for generations it was accepted as normal by our educational system and allowed to continue without interference.

And it is not difficult how to see that, as a reaction to the torture, a child might develop an impenetrable emotional shield of elitism to protect themselves from the attacks on their ego. There is nothing wrong with me. They are just jealous of my superiority. I am better than them. Etc.

So the fight against bullying will be the first step in assuring that budding intellectuals have far less reason to feel that the world is against them, and they must therefore be against it.

But there also needs to be an effort to get a certain sort of message to these children that lays out the basic facts for them, and guides them towards their proper role in society.

The message might be as follows :

You are correct to believe yourself part of an elite. Your intelligence makes you more powerful than others in a way that is truly frightening to them, and there will always be those who fear this power and thus fear, and perhaps even hate, you for it.

But superior power does not make for superior moral authority. You are not a better person than others merely because you are more powerful than they are, no matter what. Our reptile brains want us to equate power with superiority, but we are human beings and we know better.

In a just society, power is always exactly equal to responsibility. Your greater power (and do not dismiss it, it is potent) give you a greater responsibility to use that power to help others.

You have the potential to change the world and do more good than any average person could hope to achieve. That same potential could also be used to do far more harm.

Like the super powered beings in comic books, it is up to you to decide whether you want to use your powers for good or for evil.

Obviously, I would have to word it a little differently.