#intelligent thinking

(Warning: Potentially offensive!)

It is so abhorrent to some people that anyone should be deemed to be more intelligent than anyone else, that they seek to distort the entire concept of intelligence and render it utterly meaningless. One way in which they do this is by describing all sorts of dubious 'qualities' as 'forms of intelligence.'

It's offensive, apparently, to suggest that any particular person might be less intelligent than anyone else. So, when someone is clearly not intelligent in any sort of traditional way, they are described as being 'intelligent' in some other way. They are assigned a made-up form of intelligence so that they don't feel left out.

A person with musical talents might be described as having 'musical intelligence.' It's a marvellous sort of talent to have, but why can't we just call them 'musical'? Why do they have to have 'musical intelligence'?

And does it mean anything to say that someone has 'artistic intelligence'? They might be able to conjure up a remarkable likeness of my Aunt Harriet, using nothing but a blunt piece of charcoal and a scrap of paper, but does that really make them intelligent? What's wrong with just being a 'talented artist'?

Even when a person has no discernible talents, qualities or usefulness whatsoever, they can still be intelligent, apparently! They might, for example, be - and this is the most damning of all forms of intelligence - 'emotionally intelligent.'

Admittedly, it can be difficult to define what exactly intelligence is. It might be variously described as an ability to think rationally, to make logical deductions, to make rational decisions based on a coherent set of values and principles or as an ability to conceptualise and solve problems - but what it fucking-well isn't is a tendency to obsess about your own or other people's feelings, pander to other people's sensitivities and fret about fitting in! Neither is it about being skilled in toadying up to people or having a desperate need to manipulate people into liking you. There is no such fucking thing as 'emotional intelligence'!

Being intelligent, is not, in itself, very difficult. Being intelligent is largely just a matter of not being stupid. It is this task of not being stupid, that many find so difficult.

If that makes no sense to you, let me put it another way: Let's pick a member of the public, at random, who is unable to come up with a rational, logical, intelligent argument on a particular issue of common concern.

It is very unlikely that their failure to come up with an intelligent argument is due to an inability to perform the mental calculations required. Even complicated arguments are generally made up of a number of perfectly simple, potentially easy-to-understand, logical steps that ought not to be beyond the processing capabilities of anyone other than those with extreme mental impairments.

No - the chances are that their failure to provide a rational argument is, instead, down to either;

Laziness - they simply can't be bothered to think about the issue in question, or

Prejudice - they are, in some way, so biased that they refuse to consider the matter in a rational and reasonable way, or

An unfortunate combination of both laziness and prejudice.

The secret to intelligence lies largely in recognising, understanding and overcoming these grave impediments. This is nothing like as easy as it sounds!

There seems to be a widespread assumption that everyone has a right to be just as intelligent as anyone else. It is a major social taboo to suggest otherwise - as shown by people's reactions when you do so!

As a general rule, however, being really good at something requires lots and lots of practice. And yet people frequently refuse to accept that practising thinking has any impact at all on how good you are likely to be at it.

People readily accept that to be, for example, a top tennis player, even the most naturally talented person needs to put in a huge amount of practice. People don't expect to be good at tennis when they've never practised. They accept that they will almost certainly be outplayed by someone who does practise tennis regularly.

Many people refuse, however, to accept that someone who has practised thinking is likely to be far better at it than they are - more intelligent because they've actually practised the skills of intelligent thinking!

I don't assume I can play the piano as well as the world's top pianists - I haven't practised! When it comes to intelligent thinking, however, many people expect to be magically good at it. Having never properly exercised their own minds, they refuse to accept that decades of practice might make me a more intelligent thinker than they are. They refuse to accept that their own lack of practice is any sort of handicap at all! Now, am I being arrogant, or is it them?

Having an intelligent opinion about something requires you to question it. You have to think it through. You have to consider the possibilities. You have to look for flaws in your own arguments. You can't just accept the first thing that comes into your head or lazily go along with whatever ideas happen to be popular.

The price of intelligence is measured in hours and the willingness to open up your mind and question what most people do not. Being intelligent takes dedication. Intelligence is not free!

Many people crave popularity. Perhaps more pertinently, they are scared stiff of the possibility of being unpopular - it is a constant fear and preoccupation hanging over their lives like the sword of Damocles (You know - that bloke with the sword dangling over his head!).

When a schoolchild is killed or dies in some appalling accident, the news cameras are quickly sent round to the school and numerous people queue up to say how popular the girl or boy who died was - not that they were kind or intelligent or thoughtful or even academically gifted, but POPULAR!

When did you ever hear of a schoolchild killed in a terrible tragedy who was very principled and stood up for what they believed in despite this making them incredibly unpopular?

It is a well-known fact that only popular people die in tragic accidents and murders. Unpopular people are immune to such occurrences. They have a sort of forcefield around them so strong that if a drunk driver drove a juggernaut into them, the vehicle would merely bounce off the forcefield, causing it to career into the nearest popular person and splatter them all over the road!

And have you noticed that there is often something terribly wrong with and sinister about popular people? People need to be reminded (more often than they are) that Hitler was popular. Some people may wish to pretend to themselves that Hitler was sustained in office merely by the brutality of the SS and the Gestapo, forcing people to obey his orders, but that would be nonsense. When he took Germany out of its economic depression and avenged their humiliation in World War I by defeating France and marching his troops up the Champs Elysees, he was wildly popular and millions of Germans thought it was wonderful that he had made Germany a great power again. None of this popularity, however, stopped him from being an evil mass-murderer.

Conversely, many great people who have brilliant ideas or stand up for worthy principles are often wildly unpopular. Look at Socrates – condemned to death! Look at Jesus – he only said it would be a good idea if people started being kind to each other and stopped being selfish money-grabbing bastards (though not in those words) – and what thanks did he get? They killed him for it. This is not to say that is it impossible for a good man to be popular, but there does seem to be a distinct correlation between being principled and being unpopular.

This makes sense – after all, if you want to be popular, you often have to sacrifice principles whenever they do not coincide with the popular mood. If your principles happen to coincide with popular opinion at a particular point in time, then woop-de-do-da for you, as you may experience a brief period of popularity, but since popular opinion is fickle, and your principles, if they are to count as principles, cannot change so easily, you are unlikely to remain popular for long.

If you are a good, principled person, then the popularity of your opinions will make no difference to what your opinions are. It is not something to be proud of if your values and principles are popular, since their popularity is in no way a reliable indication that they are right.

Fortunately, these days, in civilised societies, unpopularity doesn't usually carry a death sentence. So hurray for all the deeply unpopular principled people - living into old age and completely failing to get mowed down by drunk drivers or killed by violent gangs of criminals!

IMOS offers a wide variety of thought exercises, with the aim of encouraging people to develop their intelligent thinking skills. We want to see a kinder, more thoughtful society, less dominated by prejudice.