Nobody Likes a Know-It-All

Many people are sensitive about their intelligence, obviously since no one enjoys being called an 'idiot' or 'moron'. However, most people spend so much time concerned about not looking stupid that they never give a thought to how seemingly-smart people are treated. Keeping in mind, this doesn't just apply to people who are actually smart, but people who enjoy behavior (i.e. reading, not eating glue) that is considered the domain of the intellectual.

Growing up in Colts Neck, New Jersey, you go to school in a very competitive environment, in every sense. Everyone is competing to be the smartest, best athlete, best student, in effect the best person, and of course this is all instigated by the parents who suffer from their own inferiority complexes. Even there, though, people would often look at you cross-eyed if you chose to read a book instead of play basketball. None the less, it sets you up to always overreach and try to be a genius.

High school was quite the opposite. I found I had to actually dumb-down everything I said in order to even be understood, let alone not made fun of. Whenever someone saw me reading a book, they'd ask what I was reading it for, and when I responded "for fun" they would give me the look you'd give someone who said they enjoyed gargling razor blades. It works the same all over, when you're competing to be the best, the easiest thing to do is not to improve yourself but to knock other people down. Just like honors students will often make fun of the "dumb jocks" who will one day pump their gas, the dumb kids will mock the "nerds" who will never know the joy of wild orgies and football glory.

Let's just say, though, that more than people ever want to acknowledge, intelligence alienates people in much the same way as race, gender, orientation, or economic status. For one, there is a negative correlation between intelligence and religious fervor, meaning that the smarter you are, the less likely you are to whole-heartedly throw yourself into faith in God and the afterlife. So, right from the start, the worldview that defines people is drastically different depending on your intelligence. Even if you are intelligent and religious, chances are that you would be alienated even from other religious people because they would follow faith blindly, and would always question your faith.

Also, smarter people tend to get married later in life, if at all, and tend to be mistrusted by a large part of the populace. Ever wonder why people espouse the harmful intentions of the "liberal, ivy-league, intellectual elite?" Number one, its because people have no problem insulting intellectuals, even though calling someone dumb is considered a massive afront.

On the plus side, smarter people tend to live longer, lead healthier lives, avoid welfare, divorce, unwanted children, and poverty. But what's the point if no one wants to invite you to a party? That's bull', I tell's ya. If we really live in a society that wants to be open and accepting, why are we still so critical of the one class of people most likely to be open-minded? Anti-intellectualism is not merely unjustified, but its just plain stupid. When you let the least informed, or least intelligent people make all of the decisions, what you end up with is a war with a country that has no nuclear weapons while other countries are developing them, an economy of record deficits, and increased social strife and polarization. Is it so bad to think that intelligence is something to be strived for, that all people should always be trying to become smarter, or that we should entrust positions of power to smart people and not well-connected or "average, down home" people?

And maybe we'd be better off without the likes of American Idol, Fox News, and Michael Bay movies.