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Are Highly Intelligent People Inherently Cruel?

MNoBody

Well-Known Member
found this which relates
ken-wilber-14.jpg
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I've met people who are highly intelligent, and often they place the intelligence of people on a hightened level, as if the value of higher intelligence is what matters more than most other things in regards to people...

Sometimes, they will even admit that they don't like wasting their time speaking to or listening to those they deem less intelligent than them...

Other times, I fear what would happen if the world were filled with highly intelligent people.

...What is your opinion of those who write-off the less intelligent? Is it justifiable in your opinion? Why do they do it..?
I tend to find intelligent people more or less indifferent.

I get what you're saying as they can come across as being unempathetic and cold more often than not.

I would say one of the likely reasons is because not all of us can speak on an academic level, so a communication gap can exist and it turns each other away.

I also think that intelligent people tend to be more focused on subject matter rather than socializing and are more or less prone to mingle.

Lastly you could be spot on. There's no question people suffer from elitism and snobbery. We see it all the time. whether it's a technique to keep the rift raft away or not who knows. Maybe I'll have to go to college to find out. *Grin*
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
There is at least one scientific study that concluded people who marry people who are smarter than them gain around 8 IQ points over 20 years.
My wife would say that was because I listened to her good advice.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
The trap for smart people is to think they're special because they're smart. Other traps exist for what other people value what they have more of than others.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
I've noticed less patience for "my type" among hard Republics. And whether there are more Republicans or Democrats in a room, depends on where you go and how the location appeals to people.

I imagine there are a lot of myths about "your type". I think I've heard one or two, but I usually don't pay attention to such things. Life is short. Why waste it dealing with BS?
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
Everyone is ignorant, only in different things.
--Will Rogers

I can learn from a wide variety of people. For example, I know next to nothing about plumbing, a very useful skill. I don't know how to draw a recognizable face, a practical skill.

But, I have also had people attempt to lecture me about mathematics, a subject that I knew more about when I was 13 than that person ever will.

Intelligent people, from what I have seen, tend to just get bored when people go on and on about stuff that the intelligent person regards as obvious or obviously wrong. That can lead to a bit of grumpiness.

On the other hand, get them off of their subject(s), and they are as ignorant as anyone else.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
I used to think I had a pretty good idea of where I stood in terms of brains, but that was a long, long time ago. Nowadays, I'm not sure of anything, other than that, on a good day, I can outwit one or two of the squirrels in my yard.
 

Dan From Smithville

What we've got here is failure to communicate.
Staff member
Premium Member
Americans enjoy hating on smart people. It's often been noticed by historians, sociologists, foreign visitors to America, and others. With us, hating on smart people is a thing.
We doesn't need them elitist brainiacs a stinking up da place with their logic, evidence and reason.
 

Dan From Smithville

What we've got here is failure to communicate.
Staff member
Premium Member
I used to think I had a pretty good idea of where I stood in terms of brains, but that was a long, long time ago. Nowadays, I'm not sure of anything, other than that, on a good day, I can outwit one of the squirrels in my yard.
What about the rabbits?
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
I've met people who are highly intelligent, and often they place the intelligence of people on a hightened level, as if the value of higher intelligence is what matters more than most other things in regards to people...

Sometimes, they will even admit that they don't like wasting their time speaking to or listening to those they deem less intelligent than them...

Other times, I fear what would happen if the world were filled with highly intelligent people.

...What is your opinion of those who write-off the less intelligent? Is it justifiable in your opinion? Why do they do it..?

Are Highly Intelligent People Inherently Cruel?

No, I am not cruel.
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
Americans enjoy hating on smart people. It's often been noticed by historians, sociologists, foreign visitors to America, and others. With us, hating on smart people is a thing.

The US actually had a political party named the 'Know Nothing' party.

Just sayin'.
 

PoetPhilosopher

Veteran Member
Someone once got mad at me because I called a pastor who said that medical problems don't exist, it's all demons, and applied it to me and my medical problems, as mentally inferior to me and not worth talking to.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
I've met people who are highly intelligent, and often they place the intelligence of people on a hightened level, as if the value of higher intelligence is what matters more than most other things in regards to people...

Sometimes, they will even admit that they don't like wasting their time speaking to or listening to those they deem less intelligent than them...

Other times, I fear what would happen if the world were filled with highly intelligent people.

...What is your opinion of those who write-off the less intelligent? Is it justifiable in your opinion? Why do they do it..?
I wager that high intelligence doesn't correlate with mean.
(I'm thinking of the friendly & funny Richard Feynman.)
But an unjustified high opinion of superiority just might.
Those who lord an imagined chess club sized brain over
us little folk should try instead to exemplify it, not claim it.
 
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