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I think you have the wrong idea about the effect of intelligence on political attitudes. Almost all the people who signed the Wannsee Protocol, which establishe

by copx 2y ago

I think you have the wrong idea about the effect of intelligence on political attitudes. Almost all the people who signed the Wannsee Protocol, which established the Final Solution (to the Jewish Question) had the German equivalent of PhDs, and all the way back in Ancient Greece Plato wrote down the first conception of a totalitarian regime when he wrote about his ideal state in The Republic. Highly intelligent people tend to have a fetish for order and (assumed) rationalility, which leads to support for an authoritarian state. Because if you give people individual freedom and civil rights you will end up with a lot of disorderly conduct and irrational behavior in your society (see the US). Unsurprisingly the PRC does not have the problem that its intellectual elite is opposed to the ruling regime. And I do not see the intellectual elites in the West being strong supporters of personal liberties (like freedom of speech..) either.

kibwen 2y ago
This is beside the point. It's not that smart people aren't capable of gleefully taking part in malicious or cruel acts. They certainly are. But malicious cruelty is the byproduct of a despotic regime, rather than the underlying purpose. To a despot, power is the only goal, and everything else is just a means to an end. Sure, smart people can be complicit in cruelty. But stupid people can also be complicit in cruelty, and stupid people ask fewer questions. It's the same reason we breed dogs primarily for obedience, and only secondarily for intelligence. We have no use for working dogs that use their intelligence for any purpose other than their master's. Dogs need to be only as smart as the task requires, and the rest of the time they need to be quietly docile and stay out of the way. And there's no law of the universe that says that humans can't be subject to same pressures.

by copx 2y ago

kibwen 2y ago

This is beside the point. It's not that smart people aren't capable of gleefully taking part in malicious or cruel acts. They certainly are. But malicious cruelty is the byproduct of a despotic regime, rather than the underlying purpose. To a despot, power is the only goal, and everything else is just a means to an end. Sure, smart people can be complicit in cruelty. But stupid people can also be complicit in cruelty, and stupid people ask fewer questions. It's the same reason we breed dogs primarily for obedience, and only secondarily for intelligence. We have no use for working dogs that use their intelligence for any purpose other than their master's. Dogs need to be only as smart as the task requires, and the rest of the time they need to be quietly docile and stay out of the way. And there's no law of the universe that says that humans can't be subject to same pressures.