| |
|
Dr. Herb Ruhs & grandson
|
|
A society that erects pedestals,
and digs dungeons
|
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News April 18, 2008
Growing up in Louisville, KY, at the bottom of the heap, I was
frequently challenged with the taunt, "If you are so smart why
aren't you rich?" I wasn't hurt much by this, even as a very young
child, because the taunters uniformly, and obviously, were trying to
make up for being intellectually challenged by being stupidly
aggressive.
I have never felt the need to be a closet intellectual, not as a
|
child, nor as an adult, but here in the US the intellectual life
tends to be a lonely life.
As a young person I ended up being an
involuntary loner. I had quite a few friends, but almost to a person
the intellectually gifted ones were intimidated by the prospect of
being identified in our
anti-intellectual culture as "egg heads."
It's sad, really. As I just heard Gore Vidal (on the excellent show on
KPFK called Uprising) say that any taxi driver
in Italy is better informed about history and current events
|
| than
John McCain. You can never be entirely sure about
celebrities
because they routinely are not the people they play on TV, but I
suspect that he is right about McCain, and the same can be said about
most of the rich
|
and powerful in the US, truth be known.
The fact
is, and I wish I had understood this as a child in order to counter
the taunts, being "smart" tends to deny one access to wealth and
power in the US.
The apparent exceptions, like Bill Gates and Paul Allen, are not really
exceptions at all. Gates and Allen are not actual smart people --
clever perhaps, but not smart. What distinguishes the rich and
powerful in America is ambition, harnessed to ruthlessness. Anyone looking
into
|
|
All our professions and institutions are now led and controlled by people whose only claim to superiority is their political cleverness and ruthlessness.
This is what comes from idolizing wealth and fame, and being influenced by the lies that ambitious people use to entice and confuse us.
The way out of the corner is start forming small, local groups where the true character and capacity of the membership can be accurately assessed. |
|
|
|
|
the history of Microsoft will understand that the foundations of
that enormous pile of money are based on deceit, conniving and a
generally amoral approach to economic competition, not "genius".
So we end up with the ironic situation that the actual smartest
people in the room are the ones chained to their work stations and
the least smart folks are holding the whips.
Which is not to say that I think that
political power should be held by the brightest folks. That is just
another, perhaps quicker path to perdition. But I do believe that
the smart folks need a chance to be heard, and in our culture of
aggressive anti-intellectualism, that is not happening.
Actual smart
people need to pretend to be stupid in order to curry favor.
Consequently we are being driven off a cliff not of our making.
The
pantheon of current "leaders of the nation," championed by the
hagiography that is our mass media, is actually made up of pretty
stupid folks. They exert their power largely as a result of a
natural tendency of the mediocre to band together for self defense,
and the eagerness of those with property to promote the careers of
people who will pose no threat to their treasure.
It will be good if
we keep this fact in the front of our consciousness, as we slip into
the sea of suffering that will be
|
|
our national fate in coming years.
Given the opportunity to see most of these so called "leaders" up
close, few would choose to follow their lead, or trust them walk the
dog, for that matter.
We have painted ourselves in a corner. All our professions and
institutions are now led and controlled by people whose only claim
to superiority is their political cleverness and ruthlessness. This
is what comes from idolizing wealth and fame, and being influenced by
the lies that ambitious people use to entice and confuse us.
The way out of the corner is start
forming small, local groups where the true character and capacity of
the membership can be accurately assessed. Such small groups are
capable of integrating the variety of talents that present themselves
amongst the membership and are thus capable of great things.
A first
hurdle for such groups will be to surmount the prejudice that the
culture has conditioned into us to distrust the intellectually
capable amongst us. A parallel problem is the tendency in this
culture to be intimidated by intellect. But intellect is just another
talent, like industriousness, perceptual sensitivity, or a capacity
for empathy, that needs to be woven into the life of a sustainable
community.
Any community that erects pedestals to place people on,
for any reason, will find itself betrayed. A society that erects
pedestals also tends to be one that digs dungeons, and all such
extremes upset the healthy balance that is necessary for survival.
© by the author.
| | We're usually unable to forward readers'
emails, but both readers and authors are
invited to visit our 'dialogue' page
for two-way communication: |
| |
This is an archived Unknown News page. For newest material, visit our main page.
YOU CAN HELP
|
|
|
|
