Other than the fact that intelligence is something we are born with, it's simply a tool like all others. It can be used for good or bad. Depending on who's using it, one can get hurt badly.
Have you ever witnessed someone using a chain saw for the first time? It often makes you want to look away to avoid seeing the pending danger.
I used to have a love affair with intelligence. As a young child enrolled in a Jewish parochial school where students were segregated based on intelligence, I managed to move my way up the ladder to the 'smart' class. The school administration decided that the uber smart ones needed to be further split up by gender. The thinking being that those smart kids need no further distractions (boys from girls and girls from boys).
I found myself surrounded by super smart boys. I was arguably the dummy amongst them. While most of these boys turned out to be extremely successful in various professions and businesses I eventually managed to eke out a career in the software industry. My colleagues became doctors and lawyers. But not just any lawyer, Harvard graduates. Not just any doctor, John Hopkins doctors. I'm in no way objecting to how my school segregated us. That is a discussion for another blog. But what resulted from all of this was my obsession with intelligent people. I held them in super high esteem. I put this human characteristic above all others by a mile.
It took me many years later to get over this errant obsession. At one point in my career I was hired to work for a small consulting firm. My boss who actually hired me was a bonafide genius. He was a child prodigy with a photographic memory. While it might have taken me weeks to design a new system for a client, it would take him only hours to do so. I was enamoured by his brilliance. I worked for the firm for about 6 years. Then Black Tuesday or Blue Monday came. We were in the midst of a devastating recession. For the previous 6 years I worked my back off, staying late hours often daily, always billable, at client offices. My boss and his partners did well by me. Every hour I put in, helped them buy better cars and houses. Good for them and me. The firm grew from about 6 people to about 30 in those 6 years. But when the recession hit, my boss called me in to the office. I finished my latest project at the client site in record time. My reward was to get laid off. I certainly understood that times were looking dire and he had every right to save his business. But this is what he said:
'Leon I'll give you 2 choices: We have a potential new client. We are waiting for him to sign a contract. We have no work for you now but why don't you go home without pay and as soon as he signs, I'll call you. Alternatively I can terminate your employment right now and issue you a pink slip so you can apply for employment insurance. As I was still green back then and had never been laid off or fired before, I didn't know what to do. Although I wasn't nearly as smart as my boss I did realize that what he was offering me was not a choice. I had a new born daughter at the time and a big looming mortgage too. I was hurt and felt insulted. So I told him that I could not afford to go home and wait for the phone to (maybe) ring. Give me the pink slip ASAP! I also asked him about severance. He said that he could give me 2 weeks pay. Again despite my ignorance on this subject, I responded that 2 weeks pay after working for 6 years didn't sound adequate. He quickly ushered me out of the office and made it clear to the remaining employees that I was persona non grata. Worse still is what happened later.
With no prospect of getting a job anytime soon and the bills piling up quickly, I needed whatever severance was due to me NOW!. After calling him and asking for my money he responded that his accountant was out of town for a few weeks but as soon as he returns my boss will get back to me. That's when I contacted a lawyer who said that typically I should be owed 2 weeks pay per year of employment. That was the industry standard back then. If I went to court, I could get more. I paid my lawyer to write him a letter threatening court action unless he paid me 12 weeks severance within a certain time frame. I got my money in the end without going to court and I lost all respect for my boss.
After enduring this seminal event, it changed my way of thinking about intelligence. From that time on I no longer revered intelligence at all. I realized that it was simply a G-d given tool.
Why this story now?
Because I see a lot of 'intelligent' people turning the world upside down (sorry for using my blog title). In particular I see many judges in the US including state attorney generals and even Supreme Court justices who appear to have lost their way. So many 'intelligent' people have let politics and their extreme hatred of the president, influence their decisions. I see the exact same thing happening to my Jewish homeland in Israel as well. The Leftists in Israel have managed to control the courts and as such have pushed the elected government officials aside despite the wishes of the majority of the people who voted for them. I see it in my own country where many well educated people for various reasons (some nefarious) continue to keep one of our worst PM's ever, in power.
Moreover I see case after case of the average blue collar worker getting the existential things right while the highly educated and opinionated intelligentsia get mired in silly unimportant details while missing the big picture.
I see many bright people let themselves be brainwashed by the mainstream media. From advocating to shutting down the world over the corona virus to calling Israel an apartheid state, there are far too many 'bright' people on the wrong side of things.
