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> Like everything else, there is some truth to this. Generally, the more intelligent you are, the more you can see behind the façade of everyday life being easy
by Sebb767 5y ago
> Like everything else, there is some truth to this. Generally, the more intelligent you are, the more you can see behind the façade of everyday life being easy or safe. You see all the risks and downsides—the calamities that await us.
Maybe it's just me, but when I read something like this I just think of a teenager trying to be edgy. Less intelligent people (assuming they're still at a functional IQ) can just as much get a depressed view on society or live. They're actually at a disadvantage, since they're most likely in a less paying position and have less options to change something.
Now, I can also see the counter-point that being smart puts a bit of pressure on you to actually archive something and it's easy to feel like you wasted yourself. But having a massively bad view on society summarized by a few sentences does not mean you're smart, and neither does excessive cynicism - at least to me it just seems like someone is desperately trying to look smart.
- andrewjl 5y agoWhy is the quoted passage cynical and not simply prudent?
- Sebb767 5y agoThat was actually referring to the rest of the paragraph: > You see the cynicism and manipulation behind so many things portrayed as being good for you or society. You become cynical, and you signal your intelligence through cynicism. Very smart people often communicate in purely cynical observations. I didn't want to include the whole quote since I mostly responded to the quoted part and the quote would get quite long overall.
- SamoyedFurFluff 5y agoSeeing all the bullshit and deciding to be cynical and do nothing is intellectually lazy and defeatist, which is the sort of short-sighted and lack of awareness a teenager would do instead of a more prudent adult.
- bruce343434 5y agoI'm asking this in good faith because I am that "edgy teenager": what would the more prudent adult do?
- SamoyedFurFluff 5y agoThat depends on how much time/energy/money/health/resources an adult has. Generally if Ike can spare some resource towards the collective effort into making the world a better place to live, the adult thing would be to contribute some resource. If one cannot, then focus on oneself until one is stable enough to begin contributing back. Part of the difficulty behind this is that it’s easy to become cynical and dismissive because its easier to say the world can’t be saved/isn’t worth saving than actually saving the world.
- emodendroket 5y ago> at least to me it just seems like someone is desperately trying to look smart. I would phrase it a little differently: it seems more to me like an ego-saving excuse for being a sad sack and not accomplishing anything you want to do.