My family comprised some of the smartest fuckers I'll ever know but the topics of conversation were almost always toward comedy or toward demonstrating righteousness on something, typically a political point. There was almost never any discussion for the interest of coming to better understanding of anything. We can go with the traditional standard of blaming my ol' Dad but that's a tired pitch when that influence was forty or fifty years ago in this regard.
Trying to get intellectual about something is only poofy when someone tries to put you down for it since all intellectualizing really means is to try to understand something better. I've harbored immense 'think guilt' in terms of looking like a poser for thinking about such things but what should I pose, I get curious about things and it's endlessly frustrating that seems so rare. I'm not intelligent enough to account for that rarity.
There's nothing self-deprecating in rating my own intelligence since likely anyone coming here is in the fifth to tenth percentile for the smartest mofos in the country. Don't get too cocky with that since it's a bell curve and the first percentile presumably comprises the astronauts with five advanced degrees apiece along with neurosurgeons except for Ben Carson. We're more like Betas in the Brave New World in that we're smart enough to see the problems but not smart enough to do anything about them.
The biggest problem with social networks other than being the source of two-legged predators is the aggressively anti-intellectual vibe of them. No matter what the position on anything, someone is going to shred it but that's never in any rational way; it's always the endless shout downs. They call it debate and sometimes it even starts that way but it doesn't last. Eventually someone will be called a NAZI.
For all the chit chat on the Internet and the blather from talking heads on video, people rarely talk about anything. It's not like it has to be an aggressively dispassionate discussion such as with an NPR forum but most talk never approaches it and the Internet owns a huge part of the responsibility for that.
- Insert lengthy and woeful treatise on the death of written mail and direct conversation -
Noam Chomsky is the King of the Liberal Intellectuals and he's got dispassion down to an art form but there's kind of a sly smile to him which keeps it live. If we felt lectured then we probably would not listen but it's more than that. Julian Assange is another of the reigning monarchs of liberal intellectualism and perhaps Chelsea Manning is the crown princess. Edward Snowden is relatively new to this but is a rising force so let's make him crown prince. Nothing would please the anti-intellectuals more than solving the problem of these four with a barn fire and, hence, the problem.
As to the clown prince, we will offer Bill Maher and waste no further time on him.
Perhaps you agree with all or some of what any of them say but paramount is their right to say it and be duly considered. Presumably you lot agree with that much and you're not from the barn fire contingent.
Regrettably, a blog doesn't offer much beyond making speeches and discussion via comment is inevitably stiff. Going to video doesn't make any difference since the comments there are usually typed as well but, even with video comments, it's still not a replacement for real conversation.
It's the anomie of the age in which we spread far beyond our tribes and can't find them anymore. We don't really talk because more often than not we can't even find each other. The mechanical substitutes are sorry inadequate sideshows and culture disappears in a blaze of flashing lights with any kind of intellectualism completely obscured. Meanwhile, the politicians slap each other with fish.
We're not just ripped off, we're supremely ripped off.
Trying to get intellectual about something is only poofy when someone tries to put you down for it since all intellectualizing really means is to try to understand something better. I've harbored immense 'think guilt' in terms of looking like a poser for thinking about such things but what should I pose, I get curious about things and it's endlessly frustrating that seems so rare. I'm not intelligent enough to account for that rarity.
There's nothing self-deprecating in rating my own intelligence since likely anyone coming here is in the fifth to tenth percentile for the smartest mofos in the country. Don't get too cocky with that since it's a bell curve and the first percentile presumably comprises the astronauts with five advanced degrees apiece along with neurosurgeons except for Ben Carson. We're more like Betas in the Brave New World in that we're smart enough to see the problems but not smart enough to do anything about them.
The biggest problem with social networks other than being the source of two-legged predators is the aggressively anti-intellectual vibe of them. No matter what the position on anything, someone is going to shred it but that's never in any rational way; it's always the endless shout downs. They call it debate and sometimes it even starts that way but it doesn't last. Eventually someone will be called a NAZI.
For all the chit chat on the Internet and the blather from talking heads on video, people rarely talk about anything. It's not like it has to be an aggressively dispassionate discussion such as with an NPR forum but most talk never approaches it and the Internet owns a huge part of the responsibility for that.
- Insert lengthy and woeful treatise on the death of written mail and direct conversation -
Noam Chomsky is the King of the Liberal Intellectuals and he's got dispassion down to an art form but there's kind of a sly smile to him which keeps it live. If we felt lectured then we probably would not listen but it's more than that. Julian Assange is another of the reigning monarchs of liberal intellectualism and perhaps Chelsea Manning is the crown princess. Edward Snowden is relatively new to this but is a rising force so let's make him crown prince. Nothing would please the anti-intellectuals more than solving the problem of these four with a barn fire and, hence, the problem.
As to the clown prince, we will offer Bill Maher and waste no further time on him.
Perhaps you agree with all or some of what any of them say but paramount is their right to say it and be duly considered. Presumably you lot agree with that much and you're not from the barn fire contingent.
Regrettably, a blog doesn't offer much beyond making speeches and discussion via comment is inevitably stiff. Going to video doesn't make any difference since the comments there are usually typed as well but, even with video comments, it's still not a replacement for real conversation.
It's the anomie of the age in which we spread far beyond our tribes and can't find them anymore. We don't really talk because more often than not we can't even find each other. The mechanical substitutes are sorry inadequate sideshows and culture disappears in a blaze of flashing lights with any kind of intellectualism completely obscured. Meanwhile, the politicians slap each other with fish.
We're not just ripped off, we're supremely ripped off.
2 comments:
The problem with intelligent family, as you exemplify, is they are undeniably correct, always. Discussion often turned into a battle when siblings could not see the "light", in other words the world according to me. The only thing age has given is the ability to allow people to follow their own misguided view of the world. You could show a little more ability to see the shades of gray as the world is not painted in absolutes. Not a criticism just a comment . Andy
I'm not clear whether this intelligent family was unique in that or any intelligent family acts like stiff ass pricks with each other. That's extreme but, in a way, we ripped ourselves off and it bugs me all the more now that we did it but I still don't know why. I don't know if intelligence, competitiveness, or what drives that but we would have built stronger relationships with each other if we had been able to speak in civil ways. It's a nostalgic regret since there's nothing much to be done about it but maybe it means something that it is missed. Of gaping holes in my life, that's a big one and I very much wish we had been better communicators.
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