stupidity is not obsolete

it would be disastrous for a society if everyone is smart. it's not that too many cooks spoil the bacon, but too many intelligent people can cause a lot of suffering and discontent. even my friends in the slums who are smart cannot do hard labor or repetitive boring jobs. they can only work as a car mechanic, electrician, or plumber. it goes without saying that society will collapse if no one is willing to do hard labor or repetitive jobs. unfortunately, i notice there is an inverse correlation between intelligence and voting with your emotions. the symbolic leader of the revolution that toppled the marcos dictatorship, cory, died in 2009. the nation mourned by electing her son, pnoy, in the presidential elections the following year. before her death, her son was not even in the presidential race because he had no chance, owing to his lack of charisma. fortunately, pnoy was a very good president. the philippines got lucky.

i was having a political discourse with my leftist classmate in high school and i realized our conversation is a good example of how people can have very different brain wiring. i am like a vegetable vendor in the slums with low intellect and my classmate is a super intellectual like chomsky. i've always been impressed with his incredible knowledge. our discourse is like bakunin vs. marx debate on whether the lumpenproletariat should participate in the decisions of society (https://www.marxist.com/marx-versus-bakunin-part-one.htm). except i made a mistake of categorizing construction workers as part of the lumpenproletariat. our discourse also shows that the philippines is truly a leftist's worse nightmare. 80% of filipinos support president duterte who openly boasts of carrying out extra judicial killings. so my leftist friend posted in facebook implying that those who vote for duterte and his senators don't make informed decisions when voting. so i offered an explanation that the majority of filipinos are not really intellectuals, but maybe it's a blessing in disguise or else they won't be able to tolerate the harsh conditions in the philippines. it was just a shot in the dark. i was just brainstorming. but nevertheless my leftists classmate was offended by my opinion, which means he believes that although the majority of filipinos don't make informed decisions in electing their leaders, they are still intellectuals. so i asked what is his explanation why the majority of filipinos don't make informed decisions? it can't be corporate propaganda or manufacture of consent because duterte is very anti oligarch. it can't be US propaganda because duterte is pro china and anti US. maybe he realized that there is no explanation that won't conflict with the leftist agenda so just like bakunin who broke off with the 1st international, he unfriended me in facebook. george orwell taught the leftists to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy. he should also have taught them to welcome someone who challenges their personal orthodoxy.

the following is our conversation:

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(my classmate's facebook post): "It’s quite revealing of our maturity as a people that we can elicit a more informed discussion about the politics in Game of Thrones than have an informed choice of the politics we bequeath to our nation. and on a related note... the ancient Athenians who first defined democracy for us, also had a word for those who were too inept to be entrusted with the serious responsibility of electing their civic and political leaders – they called them IDIOTS."

(my comment): "the vast majority of filipinos are actually worse than your criticism. i actually wish they can at least elicit an informed discussion about the politics.in game of thrones. you are basically wishing that fishes can climb trees. stupidity is mother nature's greatest gift to mankind or to say it more scientifically, stupidity is a vital feature of our evolution or survival instinct. it would be too painful for intellectuals to work in construction or work as a taxi driver. have you seen the fb posts of your friends who go berserk just for being stuck in traffic for 2 hours? can an intellectual survive having to work in construction 8 hours a day for many decades to support his family? what i'm saying is you have to be an intellectual to be a moral person. which means i belong to the idiot class. seriously, of course there are always exceptions to every rule. i think i'm right statistically speaking."

(my classmate's reply): you're getting rusty... labels and overly long assertions unsupported by facts... doesn't a good argument make :) and btw... just so you can correct yourself of at least one misunderstanding/ misconception... I am to very large degree who I am now intellectually, because of my father who work for decades in construction to support us - his family

(my reply): as i said there are always exceptions to the rule. but that does not even come close to correcting my assertion because what matters is the general stats because we have a democracy. how many other intellectuals do you know work sa a laborer in construction?even if you say 1 million, that's still a small minority of voters. but if i'm wrong, that means maybe the recent elections were cheated? i was basically agreeing with you on what is going on but just trying to explain the phenomenon. so what other assertions and labels did i say was unsupported by facts?

(my classmate's reply): Exceptions = Excuses for the Holes in an Argument = Cherry Picking = and is Never an Explanation... but if you really want to argue for your brownie point... first go prove to all construction professionals in the Philippines that they are intellectually inferior because of their line of work :) ... do not label people stupid or pin the blame on them for the mess our country is in, just because they did not have the opportunities or advantages that we have had

(my reply): that's my point exactly. i'm glad you agree with me. you can't prove to the construction workers who idolize duterte and people who discuss game of thrones that their choice of politics that they bequeath to their nation is not informed. i think you are confusing intelligence with value. i wrote a blog about this a year ago - https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2018/01/scorned-heroes.html. i hate to use the term idiot but since it's a term that is too general or relative it's always ok to use standalone. so you are forgiven. i only used it to sympathize with you. people who discuss game of thrones but can't elicit an informed political decision can always be called idiots if you compare them to einsten even if in the big picture they can be valuable to mankind just like people who make informed political decisions. example is an uneducated single mother of 5 kids living in the slums who toils all day in a shomai shop with abysmal working conditions just to send her kids to school but idolizes duterte and bong bong marcos. but it would be pretentious for me to call her and 80% of constructions laborers (not foreman and engineers) intellectuals. of course they are not intellectuals in the dictionary meaning of the word. and thank god because it would be more painful doing hard labor if you have a masters degree. of course i have no facts to prove construction workers don't have masters degree but many of the important decisions in life cannot be backed up with facts that is why school kids picking stocks can easily outperform economists with phds. you can't just leave your nest egg in a safe savings account or else inflation will cut it's value in half in just 10 years. if i'm hiring people for a job that requires intellectual knowledge it would not be very efficient for me to consider applicants who are construction workers. it won't be efficient for them either. but saying 80% of construction laborers are intellectually inferior is like me saying you can't play basketball. it's not a bad thing.

i think what is important is that the decisions are dispersed or defused. construction workers and people who discuss game of thrones may not possess the information that you or the ancient athenians expect. but they do possess something more important: consequential knowledge. the decision makers in maoist china had all the informed knowledge that you expect - they had advanced degrees from prestigious institutions, they had mountains of statistics and they were winners of the UPCC trivia competition. they also had all the experts in the country at their beck and call. and yet when you take the power out of their hands and return it to the market, then all the hundreds of millions of people who don't have any of those things usually end up with a higher rate of growth and a rapid decline in poverty (thomas sowell). example of consequential knowledge is when a drug lord rapes your daughter and nobody can do anything about it because drug lords are the untouchable kings of the community. the ancient athenians and intellectuals who sits in the library all day reading won't have access to this consequential knowledge.

(my classmate's reply): NO there is a very Big Difference between calling/dismissing people as stupid based on their profession or circumstances and calling people stupid for insisting on supporting corrupt/unfit politicians

(my reply): i didn't mean they are stupid in a negative way. again you are confusing intelligence with value. it's a FACT that the national test scores of the philippines compared to nordic countries like denmark is much lower and i'm sure nordic countries will never elect someone like duterte. but norwegians are not necessarily better people. the core of my disagreement with your statement is that filipinos who vote for duterte are not really insisting on supporting corrupt/unfit politicians. that's ridiculous. do you honestly believe that? it's more complicated than that. it's perfectly fine to say duterte is corrupt or unfit. but everyone i know who supports duterte support him because they think duterte is not corrupt and he is the most fit politician by a mile. i don't agree with them. but i don't think they are idiots. so i tried to find an unscientific reason why an overwhelming majority of filipinos support duterte. it's just my unscientific observation that most people who don't make an effort to make informed decisions are also happy doing jobs that i would rather commit suicide if i have no choice but to do those jobs. so when my security guard friends who are duterte fanatics spew out duterte propaganda that anyone with an ounce of intelligence would not believe, i smile and appreciate them. i look at the glass half full and think to myself maybe if most filipinos make informed choices like me, then we could end up like greece because there would not be enough people willing to work in construction or drive a jeepney. it's just a guess. i have no facts to back it up. but i think it deserves some brownie points. then i take a look at nordic countries, canada, south korea and germany who elect good leaders. can their mass majority survive the harsh heat and humid working conditions of our construction workers and jeepney drivers? my point is that MAYBE it's a blessing in disguise most people who vote for duterte are not like the nordic people.

(my classmate's reply): There you have it folks – Classic Case of Trolling … argue with misleading claims of fact and pseudo proofs… if the argument collapses… pretend discussing an altogether different matter/issue… repeat process :)

(my reply): i did not even know i was doing that. i looked at your arguments and my arguments more closely and realized you are right. hehehe. thanks for taking time to comment on my opinions. it's always fun for me debating about anything. i hate it when people agree with me :-)

(for more of my knowledge bombs, click the "ian's knowledge bombs" banner at the top of this article and choose any article in the table of contents that piques your interest)