I'm a pretty bright guy (I've allegedly had that quantified, but I'm so distrustful of numbers these days). And I know a lot of bright people. I know a lot of extraordinarily bright people who do incredibly stupid things. (I also know some allegedly mundane people who make some startlingly insightful observations.) This being the political season, we are seeing one perfectly intelligent person sit down with another perfectly intelligent person and tear at each other like rabid dogs because each is absolutely convinced they are right, and that their counterpart is a total blathering idiot. Now, how is this possible?
Well, say we had a 5 horsepower circular saw. Since most saws of this type are about 2 1/2 hp, this is a pretty powerful saw. So, the carpenter takes the saw in hand approaches a piece of wood. He runs the saw the length of the wood only to discovery he has made a crooked cut.
Now, another man has a huge pile of bricks. He is a bricklayer, and he mortars the bricks together and builds and builds only to find he has built a crooked house.
In both of these cases, the power of the tool was part of the problem. The saw was so powerful, it exerted drift, causing a crooked cut. The brick and mortar were so strong, they could support the weight of the house even when not laid true. So it is with intellect. It's a tool, a raw material, and it's power is part of the problem. An intelligence bridled with imagination can create any number of interesting, internally logical things that have no basis in reality.
A carpenter puts a guide or fence on his saw. A bricklayer uses a level and plumb to lay bricks straight. But what does a thinker affix to his intelligence to keep it straight?
One thing might be wisdom. But what is wise? We can test for intelligence, but wisdom? It is a more ethereal thing. The premiere thinker Doogie Howser, M.D. once said to his father "I'd trade a whole lot of my intelligence for a little bit of your wisdom". I think a great place to look for wisdom is in the past.
One example is slavery. Intellectually, slavery looks great. What better way to build a nation than with free labor? You'd have to feed, house and clothe your slaves of course, but after that, all of the rest of your resources could be channeled into building great things.
But wisdom taps you on the shoulder. Human beings have done this before. This nation has done this before. And you realize, degrading human beings in to positions of slavery usually ends in violent revolt. Also, using slave labor doesn't produce the kind of growth and wealth you might think it would. In this country, the "free" North was always more prosperous than the South, even without slaves. And, although no one alive in this country was ever a slave or ever owned a slave, there is still a lot of anger a guilt over the issue, and rightfully so.
So, why aren't we questioning the wisdom of building a virtual slave labor class in the underpaid, under protected illegal alien work force? Are we building resentment? Are we displacing and disadvantaging low skilled workers from our own nation? Are we depressing wages? Are we justifying it economically? Are we sowing the seeds of our next revolution? Yes, I think we are. And I don't think saving 20 cents on a head of lettuce is worth it.
But, this is only one example of the extremely bad decisions we are capable of when we make a god of human intellect. For one thing, intellect on it's own seems incapable of transcending human greed. Sure, I want my daughter to grow up intelligent. But I will teach her that intelligence may be necessary, but is certainly not sufficient for success. And, I guess I'll have to teach her there are various ways to gauge success, but that is another blog post entirely.
------
And that's enough for now.
Brian Norwood
Platypi Online: The Platypus Portal
About Me
