I should be doing homework, but I thought I'd rather talk about homework than do it. I have 3 papers due next week.
I have decided that smart people are the most difficult people to get along with (smart people who are around the same age). Sometimes I look at my professors and think, when you were an undergrad, do you go around hurting your fellow students' feelings all the time, and did they think you were an a$$? Do some of your colleagues still privately find you annoying, only now they're too polite and grown-up to let it show? I know that the world is full of competition in all classes of people, "mimetic rivalry" as Somebody Girard says in the book I'm reading for Colloquium, but it seems to be that scholarly people in their late teens and early twenties are the most unapologetic about it. I've heard some of the most inexcusable comments from people whose mental capacities I truly respect. But if they are so earnest about their pursuit of beauty, truth, and goodness, why the hell have they not even mastered the basics of civility? Why is their instinct so perceptive when they analyze the motivations of characters in epics and dialogues and such, yet they can't seem to realize that when they say derogatory things about their classmates, said classmates are going to be offended? Why are they so logical when discussing abstract things, but so illogical when comparing their abilities with those of their peers? (Okay, the answer to that question in obvious). Education is supposed to refine your character, isn't it? Not just make you a more pedantic sort of jerk?
People of average intelligence just do not seem to have the same hang-ups as smart people. They aren't so fiercely competitive over their reputations as "intellectuals."
It wouldn't bother me if I knew of one of two people who were like this, but I'm finding this sort of behavior from too many people. It's enough to make me want to be a waitress all of my life. At least wait staff are rarely so pretentious.
3 comments:
Next time someone pulls that crap, quote Socrates and say that the wise man knows that he does not know. :) There is a degree of humility required when one is an intellectual, a degree to which our more pretentious colleagues have not yet aspired, apparently. Perhaps one day they'll discover that knowledge is a terrible idol.
In other news, hi, you have a blog!
Ashely. I know what you mean. Most people our age think of themselves as the end all be all. They have no concern for others feelings... I don't know. Most people say they grow out of it. I think that they grow to understand that it isn't socially acceptable to say those things out loud or in public places. Anyways... How are you? School is crazy? How is latin and greek?
a) Amanda has a very good point. Sadly, it becomes a real problem when profs continue to perpetuate the attitude, as far too many choose to do. So when you're a prof, teach your students to be not obnoxious, k?
b) You have a blog. Yay!
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