![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Death. DEATH. Death to them.
Dec. 24th, 2008 11:37 amCiro and I have talked it out lately, and we think there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the difference between smart people and stupid people. This misunderstanding runs along the line "I may not be able to do fancy math, but I can do day-to-day tasks as well as anyone." In fact, no. Intelligence is not like weight lifting, where you can lift anything below a certain number of pounds, but nothing above. There is not a range of thinking tasks, of which some fall on one side of a divide and some fall on the other.
Stupid people are also bad at doing everyday tasks effectively - of knowing how to present or understand an argument, of distributing weight in suitcases, and of mixing a drink someone asked for. Intelligence is about speed, and about connections, and if you don't have them, you don't ever have them, whether you're building a rocket or checking reservations. There is a difference between the output of a smart person working at McDonald's and a stupid person working at McDonald's - you just don't get to see it often because most smart people find work with better compensation. Some of them can't, due to environmental factors or self image, and that is both very sad and very lucky for those of us who get to use their services.
I'm tired of stupid people not seeing that they are stupid, and that they are doing things badly, and that when I have to take up their slack I have every reason to be angry about it, rather than to reassure them that they're wonderful. I don't mind helping people with social dysfunction, or with physical or mental handicaps, but this is partly because they recognize where a limit exists. Having to deal with "I'm just as good as you" stupid people is like having to deal with a person who has bad eyesight and dementia but who insists on driving.
When it comes down to it, I'd rather deal with someone who is clever but mean than someone who is stupid but well meaning, because I am vengeful and when a person regularly harms me, I have a strong desire to kill her* and whichever of her relatives remind me of her, to burn her house beyond its foundation, to mix the soil of her land with salt, and to methodically erase her name from history until all memory of her is obliterated. People are more receptive to this when someone is mean. Otherwise they're all "oh, but she wasn't trying to destroy your life, and I'm sure she's sorry about it." But really the crux of the problem is that a stupid person will just do it again, and you won't be able to expect it, because there won't be anything strategic about it. Stupid people are more dangerous than mean people.
Despite what this entry might imply, I'm in Boston visiting my family and having a very nice time drinking cocktails and playing video games and snuggling on the sofa. There was brown bread with dinner last night, and Ciro has bought me Best American Poetry 2008. The cat hasn't attacked me even once.
*arbitrary pronoun
Stupid people are also bad at doing everyday tasks effectively - of knowing how to present or understand an argument, of distributing weight in suitcases, and of mixing a drink someone asked for. Intelligence is about speed, and about connections, and if you don't have them, you don't ever have them, whether you're building a rocket or checking reservations. There is a difference between the output of a smart person working at McDonald's and a stupid person working at McDonald's - you just don't get to see it often because most smart people find work with better compensation. Some of them can't, due to environmental factors or self image, and that is both very sad and very lucky for those of us who get to use their services.
I'm tired of stupid people not seeing that they are stupid, and that they are doing things badly, and that when I have to take up their slack I have every reason to be angry about it, rather than to reassure them that they're wonderful. I don't mind helping people with social dysfunction, or with physical or mental handicaps, but this is partly because they recognize where a limit exists. Having to deal with "I'm just as good as you" stupid people is like having to deal with a person who has bad eyesight and dementia but who insists on driving.
When it comes down to it, I'd rather deal with someone who is clever but mean than someone who is stupid but well meaning, because I am vengeful and when a person regularly harms me, I have a strong desire to kill her* and whichever of her relatives remind me of her, to burn her house beyond its foundation, to mix the soil of her land with salt, and to methodically erase her name from history until all memory of her is obliterated. People are more receptive to this when someone is mean. Otherwise they're all "oh, but she wasn't trying to destroy your life, and I'm sure she's sorry about it." But really the crux of the problem is that a stupid person will just do it again, and you won't be able to expect it, because there won't be anything strategic about it. Stupid people are more dangerous than mean people.
Despite what this entry might imply, I'm in Boston visiting my family and having a very nice time drinking cocktails and playing video games and snuggling on the sofa. There was brown bread with dinner last night, and Ciro has bought me Best American Poetry 2008. The cat hasn't attacked me even once.
*arbitrary pronoun
