They say we have a cult of the body nowadays. That there’s an enormous pressure on people to look well, have the right sort of figure, the right hair... I’m not saying there isn’t. But when I look at the ads in the
Everybody has to have a degree nowadays. I’m not saying anything new here. I’m not by far the only one who thinks we need less people with a degree, not more. But still, I can’t help wondering.
We’re trying to ignore the fact that there are differences in intelligence, differences which are determined, for a great part, genetically. We’re pretending that the more people with a degree, the cleverer the population. That, of course, is an illusion, and it’s a well-known fact that by this, the level of higher education is actually decreasing. But what am I concerned about at the moment is that even in spite of this, there are still going to be people out there who just can’t do it. Who can’t get a degree. What are they going to do with themselves? There are less and less jobs for them, since everybody wants to see at least a BA after your name if they are to take you seriously. It might be that in the near future, the only job you’ll be able to apply for without a degree will be that of a “restroom manager”. Of course, we’re not quite there yet, but I do feel we’re going that way.
But what’s wrong with being stupid, really? Of course, you can’t do some jobs – but not that many, really – and it makes it difficult for the clever people to talk to you. But then again, being clever makes it difficult for stupid people to talk to you. So really, the only problem is when people too far away on the spectre meet. It’s the same as being ugly – there’s nothing wrong with it, really (and both are pretty relative terms anyway, albeit not completely), but people still consider it an insult to say it about someone. Because the society values both very high. Only, we know already it’s not nice to treat someone badly because he or she is not exactly pretty, but in the brains department, we seem to be rather behind. Of course we’re kind to people who are officially “mentally challenged”, but short of that, we take no pity on stupidity.
To tackle it from another angle: I can’t sing or draw to save my life, and the PE classes were the nightmare of my life. I severely lack talent in those departments. Fortunately for me, none of this is really important nowadays. I don’t want to know what I would end up like in Austen’s times, since I couldn’t sing, play pianoforte or draw. By pure luck, I was born in times when it doesn’t matter. My merit in being tolerably clever is about as big as in being impossible in sports, but we live in society which decided to appreciate beauty and intelligence or rather, education - and regards the other gifts of God/Nature (delete as applicable) as less valuable. What I aim at with this blog post is simply that we should realize the arbitrariness of this choice, and, to put it simply, not to look down on people who are a bit silly, just as we don’t look down on people because they’re not exactly pretty. And yes, I’ll try to follow my own advice.
(You might object that it is simply insufferable to read this from someone who so obviously thinks he belongs to the cleverer half. In a way, it is true. I do think I’m in the cleverer 50%, so to speak. But there are many people who are cleverer than me, in some ways or in general. And I don’t see a problem in that. There are plenty of things in the intellectual sphere I wouldn’t be able to do, plenty of things I can’t comprehend. Sometimes I regret it, mainly because of the aforementioned communication issue. I’d like to understand the things that interest people around me, and I often can’t. But I certainly don’t think I have less value as a person because I can’t for the life of me understand quantum physics. )
