Posted by TF on December 21, 2003, at 20:18:04
What is intelligence and how do you classify a person as being smart/intelligent?
I always used to make the mistake of equating intelligence to a person's ability to communicate, to get a point across, and hold fluid conversations. The thing I never realised, until I began my, maybe, third psychotic break down, is that a person can grasp an idea almost perfectly without (for some odd reason) being able to verbalise it. Does this mean they simply don't have the brain power to sort the ideas efficiently in their own minds or that their mind is over-working itself or using flawed methodology, resulting in poorly translated ideas? I used to be good at getting my points across verbally, in person, while speaking, but now I can only communicate my thoughts through writing and vaguely in a rambling format at that. Maybe this is a result of acquired methodology and laziness influencing the way I communicate. i.e. In writing, on the computer, I could always go back and correct my mistakes just as I make them, or go over them after the fact (after everything was written up). I think this may have made me prone to mistakes and very unclever foibles during live speech. Then, a few minutes later after I make a mistake, I think of just the right thing to say.
Who in the world actually believes that their intelligence is below standard? Who, without giving themselves an excuse in order to cope with it, can acknowledge just how slow/unclever/illogical they are? I think anyone that does accept their average or subaverage intelligence must be among the most well-adjusted people in the world. Or maybe that kind of self-honesty is'nt really to be praised, and should be expected of everyone.
Sometimes when I consider this or notice the ignorance of pseudo-intellectuals, I wonder if I'm really less intelligent than I was, or if I'm seeing things clearly for the fist time and now just making excuses to deal with it; overidealizing the person I think I was. Then everything else that has happened to my mind seems alot less drastic, maybe something as widespread as the early ravages of age (I'm 22) or an series of panic attacks that led to an acquired tendancy (maybe a coping mechanism) to be mentally inactive.
Don't mistake my coherent writing for intelligence... I just happen to know some pretty words and how to put them together. There's nothing special about that.
Venting: You know, one thing that really pisses me off are those people that follow intellectual pursuits simply for the sake of feeling superior. If you're going to read poetry, enjoy literature, and or study philosophy then fine, do it and be satisfied. There's no need to lay your obvious, simple and pathetic observations and inferences on everyone else in an attempt to make them think you're special. Nothing annoys me more than people who have a constant need to make others think they're special in this way. It's so friggin pathetic and infuriating to see people brutalizing perfectly good idealogy with their own, narrow perception of it's truth. And then they assume that they're the only blessed individuals that understand what it's truly about. It's times when I meet people like that that I wish I had my speaking ability back. There's no gift or talent more precious than the ability to tell someone they're stupid and show them how. Why does it seem that no one can smell their own $#!+?
This whole thing really sucks.
poster:TF
thread:292216
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20031221/msgs/292216.html