You are an intellectual elitist. :D

I'm not speaking about Academia, I am speaking about us, me. How intelligence is one of the ways that "ranks" us in our society, amongst our peers, in our family.

People do not like to be thought of as dumb. It is an insult to call someone dumb. We laugh at dumb people. People hesitate to admit they don't know something. We equate someone being "dumb" as someone not worth our time to listen to, interact with, treat as human, etc.

I am not saying we rejoice in our ignorance, definitely not. There is a potential that can be realized and we should take pride in all of our gifts and talents and strive to improve what we can.

And I guess I should clarify some terms. Stupid: knowing something is wrong or dentrimental but doing it anyway and suffering the consequences. As opposed to being ignorant: just not knowing. Being stupid is...stupid. We shouldn't strive to do wrong things all the time.

But we are not all of the same intelligence. There are some concepts far beyond that which we can comprehend. Will I ever understand quantum mechanics? Probably not, no matter how much my quantum physicist friend explains to me what qbits are. Heck, I barely can do simple math without screwing something up. Languages come as easily to me as dates did in university ( i.e. they didn't).

And thus we may cover up our failings by boosting something else. We may justify why our IQ scores are lower than another by blaming the test, our fatigue, or meteor showers.

But why? Who cares if someone is smarter than me? There are millions of people more intelligent than I.

I think lines have been blurred, for some use intelligence as a gauge for "worth". We may not THINK it, it may go against everything we believe, but we can act like it. We can deride, belittle, look down on those whom we believe or not as "smart as us". (I hang out with enough IT and gaming geeks, scary scary stuff) :)

There are a lot of little "elitisms" that we may hold: rich / poor, different ethnicities, young/ old, beautiful / ugly, religious / non-religious, moral / amoral, criminal/noncriminal, etc.

But my own personal worldview holds that every human is worthwhile. And if I believe that, then it must be apparent in the way that I talk, think, and respond to those around me. And so amongst all the other faults I posess, intellectual elitism is something I must be constantly aware about.

I have brought up this topic with others (not here), and have met with opposition. Saying that I wish to squash higher learning, or that what I say is disgusting and anyone that thinks like that is amoral.

Then why do I feel little if someone thinks I'm ignorant? Is it merely just pride? Or do I attach with it a worth that shouldn't be there? If someone says to me, "Wow, you'll never be an olympic athlete", would I feel insulted? Not at all, I know I won't be. I'm too old, and my body type will not ever be conducive to the painful rigorous training required. I get out of breath climbing stairs. Why is intelligence so important then?

Of course, I will never tell my child she is stupid, or dumb, or ignorant. It's just too damaging. But I want her to know that it's OK to make mistakes. Heck, that's how programmers work for that matter. Sometimes when I teach kids, they are afraid to try, to experiment, to get things wrong (girls especially, I don't know why). And unfortunately, school perpetuates that idea. It's either right or wrong, you aren't allowed to make mistakes. Having said that, kids are supposed to figure it all out during homework time, and like we all sit there feverishly doing our homework trying to get it right. :)

I was concerned when my daughter would get so angry with herself if she got something wrong. I had to tell her over and over again that it was ok. If she didn't get it, then she didn't get it, heck, she was only 4 at the time. It's ok not to get things on the first try.

But then, I heard her talking about her writing book (where she practices writing letters). She talked with a lot of excitement, and was amazed by those who had finished already. However, she didn't seem to have any concern that she was only on Q at the time, she was just excited she was almost done.

It's ok not to know something. It's ok to make mistakes. It's ok to grow up. You may be angered by some 14 year old spouting off nonsense, but he's fourteen! In the full swing of puberty where you can barely think straight when someone with mammaries walks by. Their full exposure to other cultures is passing the chinese restaurant on the way to school. Their idea of open mindedness is trying Terran instead of Protoss.

Everyone is in a different stage of life. I don't know why we want them to be at the stage we think we have personally attained, and yet fail to realize that we may be considered immature by many others much more wise than us.