Too Smart To Be So Dumb

Weekly Standard ^ | 05/27/2003 | Joel Engel

[Under the Radar]

Good article, which made important points. However, I didn't need to glance at the heading in order to determine it was from the Weekly Standard, just from this line: "Common sense is both rarer and more important to successful leadership than is genius... Truman, a man without a college education, had it; as did FDR, whose second-rate intellect, according to Oliver Wendell Holmes, took orders from a first-class temperament." I have to shake my head at the way that mainstream conservative thought is going, which lumps FDR in the same category as Reagan and W with regard to "common sense" and leadership.

[Under the Radar]

Why is it that those who value intelligence highly will deny its very existence when scientific studies show that certain American minorities famously lack it?

They certainly become very aware of it when it comes to executing the mentally retarded...

[Hatteras]

"He had an advanced degree and spent years studying the subject. How dare I think that my opinion was as valid as his."

Sadly, this trait is not limited to liberals. There are plenty of people right here on this website who view other Freepers in the same derogatory manner.

And the holier-than-thou Bible thumpers? Don't get me started... ;-)

[Under the Radar]

Because I engaged him in conversations and challenged him to defend his ideas, I found that sometimes even his experience contradicted what he had been taught in grad school. But rather than question his teachers, he had so completely internalized the lessons that he denied the obvious, rather than than question the dogma in view of apparent reality. It was kind of sad. And now he is teaching this kind of mental gyration to others.

Actually, that is a sign of a new or poor teacher, someone who doesn't know his own area well. If he is still that kind of pompous ass in a few years, then that is who he is. If he was a young professor or grad student (shameful how many of them teach undergraduate courses), then he might grow up a bit and become a real teacher.

While I agree with your premise, I do want to point out that rigidity and the inability to handle contradiction in the classroom can stem from something other than political bias.

[msru]

What was the course?

[Restorer]

Well, you got me there, because I think the greatest President of the 20th century was RR.

[Conspiracy Guy]

RR was but this is the 21st Century. ah ha

[Psycho_Bunny]

"..................................I reflected that if I could only find a man wiser
than myself, then I might go to the god with a refutation in my hand. I
should say to him, 'Here is a man who is wiser than I am; but you said that
I was the wisest.' Accordingly I went to one who had the reputation of
wisdom, and observed him--his name I need not mention; he was a politician
whom I selected for examination--and the result was as follows: When I
began to talk with him, I could not help thinking that he was not really
wise, although he was thought wise by many, and still wiser by himself; and
thereupon I tried to explain to him that he thought himself wise, but was
not really wise; and the consequence was that he hated me, and his enmity
was shared by several who were present and heard me. So I left him, saying
to myself, as I went away: Well, although I do not suppose that either of
us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is,--
for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows; I neither know nor think
that I know. In this latter particular, then, I seem to have slightly the
advantage of him."

-Plato, Apology

[CyberAnt]

Well ... how about Loserman saying Bush was robbing the Soc.Sec. and Medicare Trust Fund ...?? Even I know there is no such thing as a "trust fund". How stupid is that ...?? Guess Loserman thinks I'm tooooooo stupid to know!

[Restorer]

You got me there. GWB is definitely the bestPresident of the 21st.

But then he's also the worst, isn't he?! :)

[Conspiracy Guy]

In the 21st he gets all the best worst smartest dumbest tallest shortest.

[JudgemAll]

How dare I think that my opinion was as valid as his.

Accreditation and intelligence is used to distort the truth. Since when truth needed accreditation from colleges.