Am I smart?

Rantings from the Wellcome Library, London.

I don’t identify as an academic, altho I will drop the Ph.D. when it serves.
I’m sure as hell not a capitalist. No special conditions on that one--fuck that shit.


I know a lot. I’d wager a damn sight more than most on most subjects, but I don’t yet share it that well. (I know that sounds arrogant, but in my mind that boast isn’t all that extraordinary.) This isn’t to lambaste the hoi polloi. It’s a comment on my own sense of being and purpose.

But I don’t think people are stupid--not really. I just bought a book about ways in which technology is making us smarter, and I’m glad for it thus far. I’ve been hearing about the dumbening of America, and how technology is making us stupid--too much staring at the ol’ boob tube in all its various forms and incarnations. I’ve heard how Google is making us forget information, how our public discourse is sophomoric, at best. All these things have some truth to them, but I just don’t buy the whole “getting dumber” argument.

We’re probably getting smarter, if that statement actually means something. Even after a Ph.D. in education, with an emphasis on learning theory, I don’t know what “smart” really means. It’s become a four letter word. Smart is an intuitive description (judgment really) that we all seem to somehow relate to. She’s the smart one in the family. That person looks smart. (Here in the Wellcome Reading Room, everyone looks smart, by the way.) Wait, lemme look to see just how dumb that driver looks. Smart/dumb is a judgment I make everyday of just about everyone I see. I’ll bet you do to. I try not to get carried away by it though.

As a quick judgment, smart is pretty easy to grasp. It’s kind of like “cool”. You do know what’s cool and what’s not, don’t you? I judge myself to be smart, and I am therefore attracted to people who I also judge to be “smart”. I wonder, are there people who judge themselves to be dumb and are therefore attracted to dumb people? Maybe, but I doubt it. Everybody likes being smart, and we are able to own up to those areas in which we are dumb, and more or less accept ourselves for it. Of course, the above only makes any sense when we take “smart” at face value--as quick judgments that make enough sense at the time to be somehow useful, but really only make sense until we try to write it down.

Take that smart judgment you just made--about yourself, that guy, that gal--and write down precisely how you came to that conclusion. Really, try it. I’ll wait……..

Whenever I’ve done it, I get a nice exercise in articulating my observations--a worthwhile practice for a part-time social scientist--but I don’t get any clarity on why I looked at that person and saw “smart”. Mostly, I find myself in a morass of cultural biases, personal preferences, and projections. Each time I come to realize that my categorization was really unfair--bordering on mean. The truth is that I don’t have the foggiest idea of what that person things, or how, or why. (Ok, maybe a bit, but it’s mostly experienced speculation.) More to the point is that I have no way of labeling goodness or badness there (i.e. smart=good; dumb=bad, duh!). Then, I inevitably get into the realm of why they’re  smart (or dumb), and I’m into the whole biased, depressing tale of American compulsory education--good grief!

The whole smart/dumb judgment is basically a trap--a well-rehearsed rationalization of a much simpler human judgment: “I am attracted to that person, or I am not.” “I want to talk to you, or I don’t.” “I want to listen to you, or I don’t.” I want to do just enough talking and listening to get you naked”…etc. “Smart” is just something that I like, and I know it when I see it. Am I really seeing “smart”? Probably not; it’s probably other qualities. In the end, “smart” is a word that describes a personal preference--a word that lumps together a suite of attractive, yet hard to describe, qualities.

Now, back to smarter/dumber at the social cultural level. I hope that you have been persuaded by my previous “argument” that smart is a preference. (It’s like an argument, but I’m hardly using any actual evidence. Still, perhaps it was convincing, particularly if you did the exercise.) Given that smart is a preference described by whomever is doing the writing, saying whether or not we’re  getting smarter is up to the author to define.

For me--the author of today’s blog--there is only one brand of “smart” that I give a damn about: awareness. Awareness of self, awareness of others, awareness of environment. To me this is the only one that matters. Not knowledge; not technology; not societal sophistication. Hell, the Nazis were knowledgeable, and they had impressive science and tech, but in the end they were just judgmental, snobby assholes. The Victorians may have been the height of Western civility, but oh the secrets they kept!

Knowledge, tech, social graces--all bullshit.  Awareness is the thing.

The question is, then, are we becoming more aware?