Has the world really come to hate intelligence?

[Socken]

It's pure Darwinism.

Less intelligent = more offspring.

You sure you got that right?

Well judging by the amount of parents below the age of 16 and with an IQ below 3, I guess he is. Sort of.

Anyway, I blame 2 things for this development: a) Jealousy and b) schadenfreude (if that's the right word).
a) because evidently the majority of the world is not super-intelligent, but would like to be, and they grow frustrated upon realizing that they will never be.
b) mainly because of today's TV shows. I don't know what it's like in the US or the UK or wherever, but I reckon it's not much different than over here. Say you have a show like American Idol or whatever it's called. The people on there making complete fools of themselves will always get more attention than those who can actually sing. This is because seeing those outright idiots makes the viewers feel better about themselves, cause they see that there's still people who are worse off than them.
So a) and b) are kind of closely tied, with b) somewhat soothing the effect of a).

Now my head is spinning.

Incidentally though, I find it amusing how everybody posting here (including myself of course) appears to automatically assume that they belong into the "intelligent" category. Someone should do a study or something about that.

 

[Hazy]

Idiots will be our downfall..

But it's the idiots that survive.
Start getting less intelligent lol, it's the intelligent thing to do. XD

It's a Paradox..
My head hurts..

 

[TriggerUnhappy]

I believe that yes it has, and I think part of it may be the fact that people are just plain spoiled. Before and even now with many poor immigrants from other countries, education was seen as a way to escape your poverty, for it opened up a whole new world of opportunities and places for you to go, education sets you free. However, now all anybody thinks and talks about are the stupid devices they play with like their iPods, cell phones, etc. and see no point in earning an education when other geniuses will come along and make inventions for them while they hang around and do nothing. The funny thing is, stupidity is spreading as a result of smart people's work, for less people are dying resulting in more and more dumb kids being shot out every year by the morons, while the smart keep creating innovations. So, with natural selection all but gone, the stupid are growing more and more numerous and it seems that any that dare shake off from the herd and actually try to gain an education and learn something, are seen as nerds or geeks or whatever, because they're separate from the crowd and thus different which results in the smart being hated.

TL;DR version: Natural selection's gone because of geniuses from the past, stupidity is becoming the norm, anyone that differs from the norm is hated thus leading to many a people hating others for their intelligence.

 

[S.H.A.R.P.]

Two examples don't go very far, but at least I get your point. I blame the internets. Suddenly, everybody has a chance of their fifteen minutes of fame. Before, only a few select idiots were selected to feature on the television. The sheer number of idiots on the internets now overwhelm the few intelligent folk out there. They are regretfully more entertaining for the masses out there. The idiotic masses are left with a choice, idiotic entertainment, or other things they don't understand. Naturally they pick the idiot's thing. It's sad really.

Wish we could go back to the time of Archimedes and Aristoteles. Intelligence was appreciated back then, even though some certain trains of thought were condemned with less pleasant things.

 

[TheMatt]

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.

I am so with you, brother.

We can burn together.

 

[Kevvers]

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'm impressed that you managed to build a thesis out of two absolutely obscure events.
Intelligence has never been hated in civilized world and now with the progressing process of informatisation it is desired more than ever. The reactions of plebs are insignificant.

Hear, hear. In the real world of job interviews and performance related pay, intelligence actually does count.

 

[tsfkingsport]

Hatred of the intelligent seems to be a more western trend. Being abnormally intelligent is the only positive trait that can make a person become an outcast, at least in the middle and high school levels.

What follows is not personal experience(I grew up in the US) but information from my mom who grew up in South Korea.

In most Asian cultures your very worth as a human being is judged by how well you perform in school, the dumb are outcasts and even the janitors had bachelors degrees. Students were also beaten for being lazy, just just spanking actually being punched in the face and beaten to a pulp with rods.

Things may have changed in the few decades since my mom has moved away from Korea but maybe there are some things that we can learn from eastern culture.

(Parenthetical statement to avoid potential flaming) I am not a Japanophile. I consider the Japanese culture to be a very strange mashing together of old traditions dying out and a lot of strangeness taking its place.

 

[Captain Pancake]

Jealousy is harsh. People want what they can't have, and if they struggle to get it and fail, they hate it instead. Its a nice spiral

well said. that's why i'm unpopular at school... *sniff*

 

[Del-Toro]

She does well on a quiz show and now she's public enemy number one? Some racist failed actress get's cancer and suddenly everyone loves her? Why has our society not outgrown this childish aversion to intellect, why are adults not above picking on the smart kid like they are in grade 2? This is absolutely pathetic people, and anyone who does it is an absolutely pathetic person.

 

[Pain Is Inevitable]

Socialism is at least partly to blame for it, in my opinion. After all, why struggle to give your best when you can simply sit back and live a completely average and safe life by leeching off the success of others? It's a system that punishes brilliance and awards mediocrity, which seems to suit our already mediocre politicians just fine.

 

[D_987]

What is intelligence and who are you to judge who is and isn't it?

 

[tsb247]

There was a moron in a class I dropped into from time to time who liked to blame all of the intelligent people in the world for his problems. He actually said that, "It's smart people like you who ruin the world for the rest of us!"

By his logic, I can only assume he said that because people who set an example and succeed make it harder for the lazy people to get by unnoticed.

 

[Goldeneye103X2]

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

 

[Jarek Mace]

What is intelligence and who are you to judge who is and isn't it?

Well for starters, like stated before.

Jade Goodie was a failed actress.
The other girl knew about the advanced areas of physics, astronomy and astrology, and even down to the things the average Joe would know, soap opera's for instance.

 

[FinalGamer]

CUZ U DON' BE HATIN' ON DA HARGLBLARGL LOLWTF YER GAY CUZ U NO STUF I ONO ROFLMAO!!!!?!?!?!111!!?!!11!?!?


That was just for the idiots, now in normal human English I'll repeat that.

More people in the world are idiots than the ones who aren't due to the increasing praise of stupid people on television who become infamous for something more unique but absolutely useless and non-influential, because they're more normal (or rather, more in common with the morons who make them famous) and therefore are more sympathised with in the desperate struggling of brain cells they have to create just ONE of together.

Also, that stupidly vacant pig-faced excuse of an annoyance Jade Goody gave nothing to the world and she continued to remain proudly stupid to her death, like choosing a fist-headed thug as a husband who couldn't even marry her because he was in jail. And has been in jail about three times since her death. And yet we praised her the minute she went all jazz hands about her cancer. It's Diana all over again, someone who did very little and few of us liked but their death somehow brings enough sorrow to the world.
Drool on, dummy. Drool on.


Okay that was unfair, Diana did give two heirs to the throne and did some charity work. I dunno if Jade ever did any charity work, if she did then good for her, you did something.
But the fact she had an entire show about choosing a PR makes me not even acknowledge her existence in the first place. The same as Paris Hilton when she dies.

 

[LadyZephyr]

Okay, well, think about how we're indoctrinated to hate intelligence. Who else here was pretty damn smart in school? Weren't you singled out and mocked as a geek or nerd or sommat? Excelling in school is a punishable offense in a social context, and that carries over to adulthood.

 

[Sewer Rat]

At least you are no longer burned as a witch if you suggest the earth is round. *looks outside at large mob with wood and oil* Guess I spoke to soon.

 

[Unstoppable Wall]

Wonderful little way that the species is failing isn't it? Schools are prime examples, those that should be praised and upheld for the fact that they will one day rule you, are often times tormented. As each day passes I find it harder and harder not to kill someone due to their stupidity. That being said, stupidity is a virus, an incurable one at that, barring death, but as we move on it seems to be more accepted and brilliance is outcasted when it should be in reverse, eventually we will have full-scale de-evolution of the mental capacity occurring at this rate, maybe things will change, I would like to see that, though it seems unlikely.

 

[D_987]

What is intelligence and who are you to judge who is and isn't it?

Well for starters, like stated before.

Jade Goodie was a failed actress.
The other girl knew about the advanced areas of physics, astronomy and astrology, and even down to the things the average Joe would know, soap opera's for instance.

So academic achievement is the only form of intelligence in the world then is it? What an idiotic concept...