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by cmhnn 2322 days ago
I am convinced that people who write things like this don't believe intelligence is genetic. You no more earned how smart you are than you earned your race.

Wisdom? Determination? Scars? You can claim to earn or learn some of those.

Don't get me wrong, I am not aligned with the hnn society of smart idiots who think Harrison Bergeron was a how-to manual. The genetic dice roll can be cruel. I don't look like Clooney nor am I built like The Rock. But them's the breaks. The only thing worse than that unfairness is the unfairness well meaning and smart idiots would create trying to rectify the inequities.

Still, I am empathetic enough to be amused by rantings of the intelligent regarding economic options when they seem to have not seriously considered some other people are less intelligent and may really have less options.

In the abstract I will side with those who declare no one is trapped. But there is a continuum.

You pretty much have to get me to Vichy France or San Francisco levels of disgusting society before I advocate a waitress with a 6th grade education just decides that supporting the evils of Cheesecake Factory is beyond the pale and worth joining the resistance, the kid's be damned.

Seems to me some of these smarty pants could create a utopia for the lesser folks who feel trapped by mortgage's, child support and other meaningless pursuits instead of wasting their horse power on blogs.

3 comments

There is a genetic component, but nobody is born looking like Clooney or the Rock. At the movie star level it is basically your full time job to look that way with personal trainers, nutritionists, steroids, whatever you need.
I don't follow the Clooney example. Wouldn't he still look more or less the same if he had become a pickle salesmen rather than an actor?
He'd probably be fatter, you know from all the sandwiches he'd have to eat taking out pickle clients on sales calls
This depends a lot on what kind of society you live in and how good welfare / free education options you have around you. In most western countries you can go to school, get student aid, and switch careers to something satisfying even if you are starting from a 0 budget.
Outstanding comment.

The unwillingness to acknowledge that intelligence is genetic (as are many psychological attributes) has completely neutered any meaningful discussion on a variety of very important issues.