THE NEW IDIOT AND THE DANGER OF “I”-NESS”

When it comes to human relationships, true power is founded on the unity of a greater number of intelligent people working cooperatively towards a stated goal. Those who work together in harmony learn faster and greater. This gives cooperating intelligences a greater competitive advantage over others. The cooperation of intelligent people leads to knowledge-exchanges that increase their chances of solving problems correctly and enables them to out-compete others. Of necessity, cooperation is “voluntary” and history has shown that the most enduring unity of persons is that which flows from within: from self-interest. The life of a “union” that is not founded on mutual interests but built on external or artificial pressures is short and not sustainable. So-called unity from without only lasts as long as the energy or pressure that fuels its coercion is continuous. Whenever the external pressure or terror behind it weakens, the so- called bond cracks, withers and ultimately, collapses. On the other hand, a unity that is borne out of mutual self-interests, is not only renewed and supported perpetually by all stakeholders from within themselves, the alchemy of the continuing exchanges and over-flows amongst the members yield greater synergies and contributions that make them stronger with time. Whether we are talking about the ability to create and to evolve great languages, cultures, institutions or technologies, a union of willing, learning and learned persons is key. The greater the number of wise people working as one on a project, the greater the chances of its success. The reverse is true. The greater the number of unwise people or divided people working on a project, the greater its chances of failure. If you can think of a neighborhood, a village, a city or a nation as a project for creating and sustaining the maximum welfare of its members, then you can easily see how united wise men succeed and divided foolish men crash. Thus, there are two critical elements in the formation of powerful communities. The first is a greater number of intelligent or wise individuals. The second is a symphony of such individuals. Ironically, if you can think of intelligence as a language, the intelligence of the individual is manifest only when he or she is a member of an intelligent community. Smart communities give “birth” to smart children as a matter of language, of habits, of competitive lessons and of necessity. Intelligent practices give rise to intelligent practitioners and by the naturally occurring distributions of variations over time are borne the “extra” ordinary, the innovators, the geniuses, etc. who in turn add new languages, new practices, new options to the existing inheritances in a continuous relays of creative mills. Intelligent families give birth to intelligent members who in turn “do” intelligence differently sometimes and by this difference, innovate and make the entire family more intelligent. The same logic applies to the reverse group. Dumb communities have dumb children. Out of dumb practices arise the variations over time that result in the extraordinarily dumb who take incompetence to new heights and worsen and add to the tribes and the herds of foolishness. Thus, with time, the smart get smarter and the dumb get dumber. But I digress. Intelligent people are intelligent because they understand, appreciate and embrace patterns and rules. Each intelligent person knows that his competence like his language, is ultimately dependent upon group-work and group-options. The intelligent persons knows that he alone cannot build a car, an airplane, laboratory, a skyscraper, an internet and so on and that cooperation with others is critical to his welfare. The intelligent persons also knows that effective cooperation requires obedience to applicable rules or laws. Thus, the intelligent person seeks to partner with other intelligent persons according to laid down rules in order to achieve desirables and greater things for which he knows that he alone cannot conjure. This type of cooperation is based on a clear appreciation of the complexity of greatness and of what it takes to advance consistently in a competitive and cut- throat world. The sense of “I” in the intelligent world is never singular. It is always connected with a sense of “we” in an “i-we” type of “I”. Ai! The foolish people on the other hand are not thinking of complexity; of creativity or of rules. They do not think much except as to fulfilling their immediate needs or pleasures. In a competitive cut-throat world of scarcities, these people therefore see attack or the destruction or the overpowering of others as the only way to survive or to achieve their welfare. For these persons therefore, self-interest does not start with cooperation with others or interactions based on rule of law but on divisions based on force: on weakening others. No cooperation based on appreciation of the usefulness of others, is entertained by foolish people. On the contrary, in their weak minds, they can only see other persons as obstacles in the race for scarce pleasures. The sense of “I” of the foolish is markedly singular and linked only to possessions or to “haveness”. Here, instead of “I cooperate with others. Therefore, I am a human being”, they posit: “I overpower others and I have and they have not. Therefore I am a human being”. The existential nature of the dumb fellow is thus manifestly selfish, non-creative and destructive. You cannot develop any community or nation with a billion or even a trillion of such persons even if each and every one of them holds a doctorate degree in any field. Dear readers, if we map the world according to what I have written so far, you will understand why some consistently succeed and others repeatedly fail. “I” with “we” have spoken. Who is listening?