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Path: utzoo!watmath!water!watmum!cdshaw
From: cdshaw@watmum.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: intelligence and intellectualism
Message-ID: <195@watmum.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 30-Jun-85 08:22:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmum.195
Posted: Sun Jun 30 08:22:14 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 1-Jul-85 05:41:57 EDT
Reply-To: cdshaw@watmum.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 42

>> This brings up a point which has troubled me for a  long  time.  There's  a
>> strong  anti-intellectual streak in the culture of the United States.
>> Examples:
>> 
>> 	Egghead  	Know-it-all  	Smartass  	Smart guy
>> 	Wise ass  	Wise guy
>>
>> I've had most of these words used against me at one time or another.
>> Usually the person who used them was someone who resented me knowing more
>> about a subject than they did.  They are not always used with sarcastic
>> intent.

More likely, the people who use these words object to a pedantic fool telling
them what they don't know as a means of generating respect. I tend to think
of myself as an intellectual kind of person, but I get seriously annoyed
at a pedantic friend of mine. He has a bad habit of telling you everything 
he knows ad nauseam. He is so socially clued out that he never notices
that people are annoyed at him. In his case, telling you loads of generally
useless info is a means of gaining social acceptance (or something), but it 
doesn't ever seem to work for him because he can't "read" people. 

Being smart or intellectual isn't necessary, as a matter of fact. You just have
to THINK you're a smart guy (or gal, but it seems to affect women only rarely).
Most of the time, my friend talks about things with which I'm VERY familiar,
and he invariably makes ridiculous blunders of fact. 

Too often, it seems, smart people think that by virtue of their intelligence,
they are automagically BETTER than other people. Their activities are better,
thier interests are more important, their goals in life more noble, and so on.
I know, deep in my slimy heart, that I think this.. but it's mere egotism, and
nothing more. This rubs off on other people who don't think the way "we" do,
and they resent being looked upon as second class citizens by the high-and-
mighty intellectual. The key, I guess, is to LISTEN before you talk, and try
to guide conversation on a level that _everyone_ understands.

...and no, I never got beat up in school... I always was able to talk my way
out of it !


Chris Shaw    watmath!watmum!cdshaw  or  cdshaw@watmath
University of Waterloo
I was walking down the street one day, when suddenly... by baloney melted !