Intellectual Thinking
We live in an age where words are considered to have power. In a recent UK version of
‘Big Brother’ a contestant, Jade Goody, was accused of racism when she made remarks to a well-known Indian Bollywood actress that referred to her race. Apparently Jade Goody has made a career out of being thick and of saying things without thinking, but this was considered so outrageous
that it reached the highest levels of government.
When I was at school in the UK many years ago I was often called such names as ‘four-eyes’ and ‘Jew Boy’. I never interpreted these as racist (or spectacle-ist) – I simply saw them as childish remarks. At schools in Australia, if you are tall you are likely to be called shorty or if red-haired, bluey. People don’t (usually) find these remarks offensive, so why do people find remarks that pick up on a prominent aspect of a person’s character to be so derogatory? If you were walking down the road and some kids ran passed and shouted out to you “big nose” would you accuse them of ‘nose-ism’, or would you simply dismiss it as childishness? People have given words power because they no longer think about what words really mean.
I have previously written about intellectuals (
On Being Rational) and this characteristic of treating words divorced from the real world is very much a characteristic of intellectuals. I’ve read many academic papers that have no relationship with reality – they are written in an ivory tower, divorced from reality.
I recently saw a
typical intellectual blog that had the following comment (regarding lesbian mothering):
Quick example: I saw 6-year-old pulling books from the shelves and throwing them on the floor. Rather then telling her son to stop it, the mother calmly asked: "Honey, would you like it if someone took all your toys and threw them on the floor?"
"No momma."
"Well, what do you think you should do?"
"Put dem back?"
"That's a good idea. I'll help."
No disrespect to heterosexual families - but THAT is good breeding. I've never seen anything like it.
Regardless of whether this was a lesbian or not, it is typical intellectual behaviour and I’ll explain why.
A well-adjusted 6-year-old doesn’t do this, so it is obvious that the technique that the mother used was not working. The child wants attention and he knows that if he pulls books from the shelf he will get it. Not only does he get an immediate response from the mother, but they get to play a game together – putting the books back. I would guess that this game is played fairly often. Because these people are intellectuals, they think the rational argument ("Honey, would you like it if someone took all your toys and threw them on the floor?") is what is working. In fact the mother could say anything. It is part of the game that the mother says this and the child responds appropriately. Intellectuals are unable to see past the words.
