Has the world really come to hate intelligence?

[MarcusMang]

I know I'm going to be flamed for this, but I'll say it anyway.

I put it down to the large Evangelical anti-science movement in America.

America will be the next Rome (i.e becoming too big for it's own good and later colapsing in sadness and failure)

This Russian professor is predicting civil war in 2010.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html

 

[MarcusMang]

When was being smart ever the norm'? Think back in history, only the smart/or powerful ever made a real difference. Everyone else was trying to stay alive

 

[Theophenes]

Oh, who really cares about the majority anyway? Personally I like living in a cave with my bass guitar and the internet. As such, I choose what sorts of people I want to deal with.

You have a cave? Nice.

To get on topic, the world is getting any stupider. However, as information moves faster, the stupid gits are definitely getting LOUDER. Get off the mass media, leave the grid and the boob-tube for a day or so, and talk a walk. Bring a notebook. Trust me, you'll feel a bit better.

And for all of you who are blaming Evangelicals, get some new material. Modern Evangelicals neither invented nor perfected dumbing-down propaganda, and not every religious leader is some purse-snatching half-brained televangelist.

 

[quiet_samurai]

A little while back, some of you may recall, a very intelligent young woman stepped onto a TV quiz show and scored an insanely high score at an insanely tough quiz, shortly after you was bombarded by threats, insults, and so on.

Why? Because she was intelligent? Because she has a very large potential?
Now let's move on, now we look at Jade Goodie (NO, STOP, STOP, STOP, THIS ISN'T A JADE GOODIE HATE THREAD), after throwing some rather nasty insults, she comes back with cancer, then suddenly, the women who everyone ABSOLUTELY HATES, is popular because of this.

She, god rest her soul, never really did anything intelligent to earn fame, but she is covered in roses and choclates, and a over-achiever is treated like the scum of the Earth?

I don't mind those who arn't intelligent, but a few decades ago those who where intelligent where respected, as where the dim, now for some reason the intelligent are beginning to become hated, but why?

I don't think they hate intelligence. Anyone nowadays that gets some sort of notoriety to themselves and becomes famous is an automatic target for gossip and people finding dirt on them. Almost everybody likes celebrities, but people like to learn their secrets and find out their hardships more. So i don't think she was criticized for her intelligence, she was attacked because she was famous and achieved something most people never will.

And the whole Jane Goody thing, people are just idiots. Some people just have this deep seeded primary directive to automatically think a person is good and deserves respect just because they are dying. And once they do die everyone talks about what a good person they were and how much they miss them. I agree with the whole respect for the dead thing, to a point... but if you are an asshole in real life I'm going to assume you are in death too ,and I'm going to voice just as much.

 

[Jarek Mace]

Interesting opinions guys, keep them coming.

 

[Xcelsior]

It's a sad thing I know, intelligence is no longer respected but rather ridiculed.

It all depends on what you do with your gifts. If you waste your time on game shows or hanging around MENSA gatherings, then people have good reason to hate you, you're wasting your talents on trivial things. I hate those clowns.

I qualify for this group: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_Society

However, I consider the entire concept to be arrogant and wasteful. What's the point? Why waste your time on that stuff when you can be doing something useful with your intellect?

I think the ire comes from those who identify the whole of their being by their mental abilities rather than something they've actually accomplished. Random chance doesn't take effort, which is all intelligence boils down to, random chance.

Have to agree with you on these MENSA-esque group, they don't do anything, and it does come off as being a bit arrogant.

On another note, I don't waste my time on game shows and MENSA gatherings, I would classify myself smarter than the average person so not incredibly intelligent and by no means dumb. However, because of this in school I was always ridiculed, although not nearly as much as the group of boys that were actually the 'nerd' group as classified by the self proclaimed 'cool' kids but still because I had that little bit of knowledge I was picked on aswell.

 

[Symp4thy]

I commented on this in another thread, but I feel it belongs here.
I was playing 1 vs 100 Beta last night on XBL. Two questions came up, back to back:
"Who is Harry Potter's best friend?"
"What is an animal with a backbone called?"
These were multiple choice questions, so the answer was there. About 3x as many people got the Harry Potter question correct than did the Vertebrate question. (That's the answer, by the way.)
It's a sad world we live in...

 

[Goldeneye103X2]

I don't know about america, but britain certainly isn't fond of intelligence.

Oh believe me, our two countries have more in common than you think.

They have chavs?

 

[TriggerUnhappy]

I don't know about america, but britain certainly isn't fond of intelligence.

Oh believe me, our two countries have more in common than you think.

They have chavs?

We don't call them that, but yeah we've got em too.