(Written and
posted 22 October 2012)
About a week or so ago, I was told that I was brilliant; I was then told that I was intimidating and my presence was no longer welcome. Sound absurd? On face value, yes, but when you think about it, not really. I have long contended that people are intimidated by intelligence, and that incident fits nicely within that theory.
I am not trying to sound like a conceited braggard or anything, but I am an intelligent man. I successfully navigated college, graduate school, and made it into law school, and I consider any person who does those things to be an intelligent person, as they are measureable benchmarks of intelligence. Now I don’t want youto think that I am some sort of education snob; I am not. I believe you can be highly intelligent and never have graduated from high school; my mother comes to mind. However, having been through to college and graduate experience, you have to be intelligent to succeed in getting a degree, as degree programs are specifically designed to “weed out” students as they progress through the program. You don’t have to necessarily be intelligent to get into college, but you do to make it through.
After being told that I was smart and then shown the door, I started reflecting on things, and my conclusion is that employers are not comfortable with employees who have above average intellect. In my case, for example, I do well in the work place as long as I can play the moron. Give me a simple task such as emptying trash and cleaning the bathrooms, and I do great. My problems always start when people figure out that I have the college degrees, and then come the dreaded, “You are a smart man; figure it out!” Of course, the problem is that I may not always “figure it out” like I am supposed to, which inevitably causes conflict. When a boss says “figure it out” he or she actually means “figure it out exactly the way that I would”, which does not work well when you are dealing with someone who has been taught problem solving skills, because there is more than one way to solve a problem.
I have observed over the years a troubling phenomenon – the persecution of intelligent people. Sure, we read about the Maoist purges, the Cambodian killing fields, where the intelligensia were “reeducated”, so as not to be a threat to the regime; but that only happens “over there”, right? Wrong. The intellectuals are attacked and persecuted each and every day right here in the United States of America, where dissent is labeled by talking heads as “unpatriotic” and “treasonous”. You must be blindly loyal or else you are forever branded with a big scarlet letter and treated like a leperous outcast.
There is a reason I don’t go back to places where I used to work, for I am a traitor, and I am not welcome. After all, I might poison otherwise innocent employees to think for themselves. How dare I think, and not blindly accept the omnipotence of the supervisors and overlords. Free thought is not tolerated.
You probably think I am being melodramatic, don’t you? There isn’t really a purge on intellect. Just look around you, observe, and you tell me. What I have observed are controlling, micromanaging supervisors who will harass those with intellegence, those who could possibly expose them as the incompetents that they are. Given that those who micromanage are those who are insecure about their own abilities, it is logical that they would purge the intellects; after all, when you are insecure, the only way you can get followers is to create an underclass that has been bullied into submission, and that is exactly what happens. Just about every job I have had, I’ve had a micromanaging boss who ran off every intelligent and capable employee.
Here in Oklahoma, this purge is becoming institutionalized. They are trying to equate “theology” with “science”, trying to force creationism into the schools and evolution out, for evolution threatens the power of the local theocracy. They are trying to eliminate affirmative action programs, for if you keep women and minorities down, they will never know how bad they have it and will be subservient. This is a state where a football game means the closing of schools and offices. This is a state where getting an A, a C, a D, and two F’s on a report card, in the words of the principal, is a “good report card.” If that is a good report card, what is a bad one? This a a state where children are being taught how to pass a test, but not being taught, and as long as the test scores are good enough, the educators pat themselves on the back and congratulate themselves on a job well done although many high school graduates can barely read and write and can’t do basic mathematics without the help of a calculator. This is a state with a high teenage pregnancy rate and where drug use is pervasive. This is a state where a large percentage of the population work at low-paying jobs with little or no benefits. This is a state with a significant exodus of college educated people. This is a state whose new claim to fame is people shoving their fists down the mouths of catfish.
If you want to know why it seems that the country is on a downward spiral, blame it on the purge of the intellectuals. We no longer value free thought and debate and dissent; rather, we value sameness and homogeneity. We are expected to march in lockstep, look alike, think alike, and act alike. We have two clear choices this election. You have one party that is made up of people of all races, genders, sexual orientation, economic class, and age. You have the other party which is made of primarily of rich white men and the uneducated masses who have been convinced by the rich white men that their way of life will be destroyed by those evil intellectual dissenters, and that the only solution is complete homogeny. The rich white men have also convinced the uneducated masses that they should be satisfied with their subservient position, and love and appreciate everything that the rich white guys have done for them, and that because the rich white guys are so benevolent, it is okay for them to get richer – after all, they deserve it.
I, for one, do not believe any human being should be satisfied with their lot in life – each and every one of us has an obligation, not only to ourselves, but to others – to constantly and dilegently strive to improve ourselves. I refuse to accept the status quo, and will not accept it, even if I am shown the door. The status quo is not acceptable.
Those micromanagers I mentioned? They all belong to the party of the rich white men.