{"id":2037,"date":"2009-03-29T21:38:39","date_gmt":"2009-03-29T21:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2009-03-30T02:33:47","modified_gmt":"2009-03-30T02:33:47","slug":"intelligence_ma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=2037","title":{"rendered":"Intelligence May Not Be A Survival Characteristic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nAndrew Sullivan today features a comment from one of his readers<\/a> that I think nails down virtually everything wrong with the modern proto-intelligensia. Go read the whole whiny thing, but note the nut graf here:<\/p>\n

With reduced money and shrinking opportunity, many of us would elect to take jobs more suitable to our levels of education and intellect<\/b>, only the job market is awful and getting worse.
\n(emphasis added)<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One casualty of my three months off from work is my Amazon account, when Tenacious G has informed me now requires two signatures…so I’ve taken to going to the library a bit. I secretly enjoy it, because among my fondest childhood memories is going to the Main Library and scrounging for that week’s books with my father.<\/p>\n

Then one of my worst memories was watching the library burn from my office overlooking it in 1986…<\/p>\n

I always look at the books other people are reading; the overweight lesbian Latinas with gang tats in line in front of me, reading “Black Beauty,” the slow-moving older man reading Dickens or the hyperkinetic 11- or 12-year old, holding a stack of books on geology.<\/p>\n

And I notice the people Randy Newman talks about in “It’s Money That Matters”:<\/p>\n

Of all of the people that I used to know
\nMost never adjusted to the great big world
\nI see them lurking in book stores
\nWorking for the Public Radio
\nCarrying their babies around in a sack on their back
\nMoving careful and slow<\/p>\n

(Chorus)
\nIt’s money that matters
\nHear what I say
\nIt’s money that matters
\nIn the USA<\/p>\n

All of these people are much brighter than I
\nIn any fair system they would flourish and thrive
\nBut they barely survive
\nThey eke out a living and they barely survive<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I see them, they are walking slowly through the library, holding interesting books and careworn, slightly resentful, expressions. The world has not been kind to them – hasn’t rewarded them in keeping with their dizzying intellect or their degrees – and here they are, eking out a living and thinking great thoughts while wearing threadbare sweats in the public library.<\/p>\n

I’ve always explained to my sons that while you’re in school, people get paid<\/b> to point out your successes and to cultivate your intelligence; but that stops the moment you take off the cap and gown. <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Sullivan posts a fine whine; Armed Liberal responds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}