Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Anti-intellectual Intelligence

There is only one kind of intelligence. It's the ability to manipulate abstract concepts. There is no such thing as emotional intelligence. There is no interpersonal intelligence. There is no whistling intelligence. Above (or rather, below) all, there is no 'kinesthetic intelligence'. No, your moronic little ape of an offspring that's still sounding out 'See Spot Run' in high school is not smarter than anyone else because he can bounce a ball. Gardner can take whatever grants he got by telling yuppies and slumlords what they want to hear and shove them up his cloacal intelligence.

There is such a thing as aptitude. Mozart had an amazing aptitude for music. So does a lyrebird. Some humans have an aptitude for artistic decor. So do bowerbirds. This does not qualify any of them as more than bird-brains. There is only one aptitude which allows us to appreciate that artistic creativity and at the same time advance political systems, sciences and philosophy, and that is intelligence.

Intelligence, the capacity for abstract thought, for planning, foresight and learning, is the one aptitude that potentially sets a human at a higher level than any other lump of matter in the universe. The idea that some worthless ape's ability to run fast should count as 'intelligence' so that he feels equal to any scientist or philosopher is as damaging a fiction as any aristocratic abuse of the past few millennia.

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