h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

All this is really just a nicer way of repeating that wise maxim, "Individuals can be intelligent, but people are stupid."

I think we come here for a variety of reasons, but the foremost among them is to find a few people in the mob that we can relate to. Everyone else tells us we're insane... a group like this teaches us that either we're not insane, or at the very least we're not alone in our delusions.

It is what we're doing. We're just joining the group we like to join after a careful, considered decision. Well, I am anyway.

Could be that the internet makes people from all parts of the world form new groups (gangs/religions/whatever), that are regardles of borders, "races", genders, age and other differences that do not show up on the screen.

The Internet has certainly gotten me into groups I'd never have gotten into before.

Lear wrote "In 'separating' off from the mass mentality, the individual inevitably renders him/her self vulnerable to their prejudices. After all, there's nothing the ignorant lumpen love better than to try to destroy someone who tries to stand apart from them. In other words, one risks becoming a 'them' to the general 'us', if that makes sense."

Oh yes, it makes sense alright! This particular form of persecution is summed up in the 'proverb' "no-one likes a smart-ass".

Now there *is* a justifiable aspect to this, where the clever bloke flaunts his intelligence, taunting those who are less bright. He deserves what he gets, because what he does is cruel.

The other side of the coin is the intelligent bloke who doesn't make a big thing of it, but doesn't try to conceal it either. His less intelligent brethren dislike him because he is brighter than they are, and it makes them feel stupid.

Well hard luck! Tom Cruise makes me feel unattractive to women, but I don't hate him for it. *This* use of 'them' and 'us' incenses me, for the obvious reason.

Pattern-chaser

I suppose we're fortunate to live at a time when smart people are merely bullied and ridiculed, rather than being burned at the stake as heretics. I'm pretty sure that intelligence is probably a genetic defect, like having a sixth toe, more than it is a selective advantage. It seems to me that the selective advantage goes to the mediocre ones who can fit seamlessly into the pack without angering its alpha males. I suspect that the beginning of wisdom is recognising that "smart" doesn't really count for s**t in life.

I disagree - certainly I'm glad I'm not at risk of being burned at the stake, but I don't think intelligence is a defect. However, intelligence without wisdom is a fairly bad thing. I think that might be wrong with a couple of people who regularly start flame wars at my University - they're incredibly clever, but don't seem to really understand the world. I'm not saying I do either, mind.

Fair point. People who use their intelligence unwisely can be a problem. But then, people who use their stupidity unwisely can be pretty dangerous too... And I would say the former has a better chance of attaining wisdom in the long run, if they are able to learn over time from their experiences.

I think wisdom begins at the point where a person begins to try to give a rational account for their actions and for the world around, rather than simply doing incredible things with numbers / words / theories / whatever, in their own little corner of the universe without trying to take a wider perspective. In other words, wisdom is equal parts intelligence, life experience, and a sustained study of philosophy. But philosophy is a subject that many people - even a lot of intelligent people - don't even seem to realise the existence of...

Um, excuse me.

I don't mean to interrupt, but I'd like to apply for membership in the FFFF, please. I suppose I should come up with a chair title now, eh? How about...

GTBacchus, Discordian Bureaucrat and Corrupter of Youth

Yeah, that has a nice ring to it

Hello, everyone! I'm an ex-Christian, ex-Atheist, ex-ex-Christian, full-time Freethinker, part-time schoolteacher, some-time philosopher, life-time madman. So this seemed like the club to join, eh?

Is it just me, or does it seem that often Genius and Common sense are rarely found together? When my best friend describes his father who has a PhD, a couple of Masters degrees and who knows how many Bachelors, he says that he is, "The smartest idiot I know" or is it the "dumbest Genius" I can never remember.

It seems to me there are many and different kinds of intelligence. And as mentioned above geniuses often lack common sense. This is not always the case however: My countryman, the Nobel Prize winning physicist Niels Bohr was once visited by an american journalist, who was astonished to find a horseshoe hanging over Bohrs front door. "What's that for?", the journalist asked. "Good luck", answered Bohr. "You, a highly respected genius, believe in that?". "Of course, not", answered Bohr with a little smile, "But I'm told it works even if you don't believe in it"

There's Mark Twain's take on Common Sense, which is that it isn't that common. Then there's mine, which is that Common Sense as it is usually practiced means roughly "cretinous ignorance". I don't know why common sense is revered over uncommon perception or rare intellect or exceptional wisdom, but it is.

Open up the newspaper and you'll see the results (try letters to the editor for a healthy dose of common sense... "I'm just an ignorant God-fearing prole who can barely read, but I wanted to offer my sincere convictions with regards to this inconceivably complex socio-economic issue confronting our society, blah blah blah".) I'm so sick of it I could die.

Not the smartest subject-title - which only goes to prove, I guess...

Is it my perception or are most people who write in to newspapers really silly people who think they know more than anyone else? Anyone read the Daily Mail? They have a column called "You're a Genius" which is short suggestions from readers, normally about "Why don't the government do this..." and so forth. Most of them show a remarkable lack of consideration for such trifling things as money, impossibility, other peoples' opinions etc. Can be quite amusing, but can also make you very angry over breakfast.

Be thankful for stupid people. Without them, the rest of us (you/them/whomever)wouldn't feel nearly as smart.

Welcome to the mix, Bacchus. It's always nice to welcome someone named for my favorite divine being, although I have to admit to being prejudiced to the Greek name, Dionysis. The god of drinking and fornication... I feel the power... ahhhhhhhh...

I agree about the rarity of the poorly-named "common sense." And I wouldn't be so glad of the cretinous idiots if I were you... they outnumber us, so they control the vote. As for the idiot savants, those who are geniuses in their field but can't tie their shoes, I figure that what they suffer from most is a case of mental myopia. They spend so much time in their books that they forget to learn through other means.

Idiots not only control the vote, but are the only people we can vote for. Maybe the FFFF's UK residents should form a political party, get ourselves elected by diverse devious means, and run the country ourselves? From there we could take over the world.

I'm up for it, MaW!

Pattern-chaser

MaW, you are a genius!

...of some sort

The mad sort, no doubt.