Not too long ago, I wrote an article here entitled “What if I’m Dumb,” and it would be better if you read that one before reading this one. But it’s not mandatory or anything.
In that article, I said this: “Intelligence is a sticky topic. It’s way further off-limits for most people than religion and politics. Talking about religion or politics is infinitely safer than talking about intelligence. It’s a perilous topic, fraught with danger.” And it’s true. There is no easy way to brook the topic of intelligence because people are automatically defensive, and if you’re the one bringing it up, you’ll face the slings and arrows of people calling you arrogant or posting stupid memes in the place of reasonable discussion.
Here’s the other quagmire. Any discussion of intelligence is automatically going to be met with a bevy of “there are different kinds of intelligence” retorts so that people can declare that their uncle Phil, who could change the transmission on a Chevy Nova while it was moving but couldn’t read, is far more intelligent than any NASA scientist who eats gas station sushi and wears odd socks. These facts may not address the point, but arguing them makes people feel better about themselves.
So, I’ll just get to it.
Intelligence is a difficult topic for many reasons:
- The identitarian and equity cults are offended by any implication of native intelligence as genetic, cultural, or even as a gift, and therefore unequally distributed. The same cult that cannot tell you what a woman is, believes that recognizing that some people are not intelligent is unfair and biased.
- The same cults are offended if there is any implication that intelligence is more easily cultivated in some cultures than others. Therefore, we experienced the accusation (some decades ago) that intelligence (the discussion of intelligence, or the testing and measuring of it – IQ grading) is racist.
- Intelligence often brings a backlash, and that backlash is widespread and multi-faceted. Children are often bullied, or excluded if they show undeniable attributes of intelligence. In our modern culture, the proper use of an expansive vocabulary, the use of proper English, interest in a wide variety of fields, and even curiosity can be social suicide for young people who are under heavy pressure to fit in.
- Nobody wants to feel dumb, even if half of the population is average or below in intelligence. Yet, nobody wants to be smart if there is a social or cultural penalty applied.
- There is now the implication, insinuated by social media and entertainment, that anyone who is markedly intelligent, is also broken, autistic, or socially stunted – all of this because of TV shows that are emboldened to make comic fodder of intelligence.
When did I know I was smart? (HOW DARE YOU! The simpletons say.)
I didn’t think about it at all. I came from a very intelligent family – extended family too. Both of my older sisters are super-smart, high achievers, good grades, super-successful in their chosen fields. So, I grew up with a family that read books and studied their interests on their own, without being forced to by others. Some people, often girls, can feel comfortable displaying intelligence and doing well in school because there isn’t as much of a social penalty for it. Often, boys who are less masculine or less athletic can get away with being bookish and intelligent, not because they aren’t bullied or excluded, but because they would be excluded anyway and therefore, they find friendship and solidarity with their own in-group.
Contrarily, some of us who were athletic and who otherwise would have been included socially, experienced a sense of rejection and “outsiderism”. I didn’t feel motivated in school because I was bored, and the teaching methods did not often match my ways of learning. Therefore, I am mostly self-taught. The word for this is autodidactic, and those who become adept at subjects or learning wherein they were not formally trained, are called autodidacts.
I read a lot growing up. Not just the usual “a lot,” but a whole lot. And I didn’t read children’s books often. My parents encouraged reading, and when we asked questions – we were instructed to “LOOK IT UP.” And my parents didn’t just say “go look it up.” We had a full set of encyclopedias, world books, etc., and when they said “Go look it up,” they meant it. As a consequence of this and my curiosity, I read the encyclopedias, mostly cover to cover. I would start out reading about Rhodesia and end up reading the whole volume of the encyclopedia.
We went to the library, and I would check out books, often about sports. By Junior High School, I was reading books that today would be considered college-level or above.
Anyway, I never considered myself smart. In my world, outside of school, everyone was smart. Subconsciously (at first) I detected the pushback from my youthful peers. I say “subconsciously” because it is not something I openly thought about. As a child, you pick up how others respond to you, and you adapt culturally to those cues. When I used words above my age group or alluded to literature, world history, or geography, and everyone looked at me like I was weird – I naturally tried to stop doing that. No one wants to be made to feel weird. But none of this occurred to me consciously. I was just a child trying to get by.
In the eighth grade was the first time any of this registered with me. I was a class clown – because I was usually very bored. My grades were C-level and sometimes worse. I couldn’t pay attention in class because none of it was challenging. I focused on sports because there I didn’t have to speak and didn’t get attention focused on me. I didn’t do my homework. I didn’t study. I read enough to pass the test, barely, and that was it. I was almost held back in the 7th grade just because I didn’t do the work. School, to me, was the most obvious waste of time. I could learn anything I wanted to from books, and I did.
Anyway, 8th grade… I was in a history class. The teacher was a coach. One of my football coaches, too. He was irritated at me for clowning around in class. One day he had enough of it and he (in front of the class) berated me for not paying attention. I got angry and told him that I wasn’t interested because the class was boring. He then decided to make an example of me. He announced that the next day I was going to stand at the chalkboard and take a test from our textbook. The questions could come from the whole textbook that was intended for our entire semester. And whatever grade I got, that was going to be the grade for the whole class. It was his attempt, like in the film Full Metal Jacket, to bring the full brunt of peer pressure and childhood social pressure against me. Everyone was pissed.
I read the textbook that night. Read it again the next morning. Stood in front of the class the next day and aced the test. Everyone was happy. But (and this is from my perspective) no one ever treated me the same again. I was weird again, and this time I couldn’t hide from it. I felt that way throughout school. I got heavy into sports and tried to pretend to be average. I continued to get bad grades, but every teacher (and my parents) chided me for that dreaded YOU DON’T LIVE UP TO YOUR POTENTIAL! Such potential. Look at the potential! You’re squandering your potential!
Listen, I know that there are smart people (back then we called them ‘nerds’) who get good grades, go on to college and do well, etc. They don’t get crushed by the cultural backlash against displaying intelligence. But there was an immature part of me that wanted to be accepted as “cool” and popular – even though that never happened.
But I’d experienced the backlash and the cultural penalty for being weird, and I didn’t like it.
And here’s one thing I learned. You can hide intelligence to try to blend in, but the things that are hardest to hide – almost impossible – are an expansive vocabulary (gained by reading,) historical literacy, etc. I wrote this in my previous article on the subject:
“Intelligence isn’t just vocabulary. It consists of things like spatial awareness, problem-solving, curiosity, the ability to frame and ask questions, intellectual humility (knowing that you don’t know,) etc. In all of these areas, real intelligence is plummeting. Specialization has had a lot to do with it, but the biggest cause (I believe) is the death of reading.”
You can indeed judge people by the words they use. It is hard to hide a good vocabulary. Vocabulary comes from two things: Reading, and keeping company with intelligent people.
Intelligence doesn’t mean that you don’t make mistakes, that you aren’t often wrong, or that you have any breadth of knowledge or wisdom that applies across many categories. There are a lot of stupid scientists who cannot see the forest for the trees. There are a lot of very intelligent mechanics and store clerks and shop clerks.
But I cannot tell you how many times I have been shamed or insulted by the “aw-shucks” brigade who act like displaying a good vocabulary and a wide knowledge of history, literature, culture, language, etc. is somehow weird, dangerous, or traitorous.
The point of this article is that I believe that we as a society have crippled our future generations by the de-emphasis on reading and by accepting and normalizing idiocy. The dumbing down of society isn’t just a popular political meme. It is intentional, far-reaching, and ubiquitous. You are the victim of it, and your children and children’s children will suffer for it.
It has become almost normal to brag about stupidity and to believe that stupidity equals humility. The Golly Gee I’m Just a Caveman trope, or the stupid sorority girl schtick has gotten old. People laughing while they tell me that they don’t read – is just more like our entire civilization whistling through the graveyard. And I hear it every day. There is a sense of pride in some people in their ignorance and backwardness. As if being a dumb redneck who can’t spell or write a sentence somehow makes you superior because you aren’t shackled with “book learnin’”. I’m not talking about formal education here, which I find to be mostly useless. I’m saying that many cultures, and society in general, have adopted the idea that being a low-functioning animal is somehow better than being intelligent, thoughtful, and able to communicate well.
Some cultures have been kept in subservience by powerful political actors and parties that go out of their way to keep people ignorant, unlearned, and unable to communicate properly. There are active attempts in our schools to remove the landmarks and bedrock of Western Civilization, and replace them with ever more intersectional, divisive, and pandering stupidities designed to cripple and remove intelligence from these generations.
Even modern Christians have been infected with the idea that the apostles and prophets were ignorant unread shaman, but by reading the Bible (a novel idea) we learn that many of the great men and women of the Bible were quite educated and certainly erudite. The Apostle Paul quoted from the poets and schools, was well acquainted with the writings of the Greeks and Romans, and he wrote beautifully as well. But modern Christians often equate ignorance with spirituality and a complete lack of knowledge as being some kind of corn-pone wisdom.
Maybe you don’t care enough. But don’t pretend to love your family, your offspring, or your future generations when you participate knowingly in the destruction of youth through the disinclination to curiosity and reading. Western Civilization is being destroyed by a couple of generations of low-IQ activist morons who still think communism hasn’t been tried before by the right people. Our children are being taught that intelligence and the application of that intelligence for the betterment of society is racist colonialism and cultural supremacy.
This started out being about me, but it wasn’t ever about me. I just wanted to share with you the idea that resistance against assimilation into the uber-dumb world cult requires activism, and the best and most immediate activism is to read a book – and maybe cause someone else to read one too. Doing so will instigate a mind virus that could change the world.
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Michael Bunker is a local columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose columns appear on Wednesdays and Sundays on the website.