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Are the mainstream "dumb" people actually the smartest?

As I look over my life (I'm in my mid 80's now) I can truthfully say that very little of it worked out the way I planned. I'm happy that it worked out, but like the old song goes :
"You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip sliding away" ....

:cool:
 
F.U.B.A.R. said:
I definitely went through a lengthy period of feeling superior to those dumbfucks around me. Heroin addiction didn't help because it tends to give you a superiority complex. Nothing can touch me, I'm invulnerable, I'm just so so clever.

Meanwhile, all those dumbfucks are progressing with their lives at the usual pace. Suddenly, it dawns on you that those people you previously had contempt for are outperforming you in life.

I came out of my 20 year addiction suddenly realising that I've got 20 years to catch up on. That's a daunting prospect and could so easily result in relapse. But I've got to just bite the bullet and reevaluate myself.

If there's one thing that addiction has taught me, its humility...
Click to expand...

That was most certainly not my experience.

I've never felt superior than other people for being smarter than them. If anything I felt envy. Envy they can't see all the flaws everywhere and can just pick a group to be apart of and not have constant frustrations with all the imperfections.

And seriously what is there to feel good about being smart? You don't earn being smart. It's just something you're born with. You earn knowledge, to a degree anyway, but you don't earn intelligence.

And heroin never made me feel superior either. Methamphetamine can do that, it's hard not to feel competent and capable on amphetamines. But heroin? Heroin just made me content with how much everything sucks.

Fuck intelligence. Being really stupid isn't good either. Personally I think being of average intelligence is the ideal.
 
I am grappling with the choices of the "question" of who is smarter.
On the one hand, you have one (jane) who is able to enjoy life without restraint of "logic, reason or possibly - and more likely - chasing a goose waiting for the golden egg to drop (quantum shit)". Janes lifestyle brings great joy and freedom but also the threat of disease, death or a littler of strange looking companions.
On the other hand; we have joe on the scope looking at a micro universe trying to figure out how to manipulate it and himself to become a "better" homo and this is the way to a means of happiness for joe... and even though joe has fantasies of fucking fido, he will most likely not get to fulfill this and misses out on the satisfaction of being a beast banger.

So.... Hmmmm.

I would rather be jane. not sure what this says about me but optimally i would be the child of jane and joe with a mix of traits both assets and liabilities - if we can call them that.
jane would be the wiser imo as she/he/it will enjoy life without the weight of guilt (or whatever) to weigh down the journey. after all... if the carrot actually is not at the end of the stick... why worry about it? maybe it all is a vain attempt to make things "better".
what if the carrot is there? we all gonna get it and who knows if its candied or raw. i personally like em raw.

can be deleted just am not smart enough to reason this out as i am a cur creeper from way back. ;)

one
 
PtahTek, both have an equal chance of "enlightenment"; and being "smarter" means nothing in the end.

"Take your place on the Great Mandala as it moves through your brief moment of time.
Win or lose now, you must choose now. And if you lose you're only losing your life ..."

Peter Paul and Mary " The Great Mandala" Album 1700, 1967
 
Suffering is maybe a better gauge. Dumb people and intelligent people suffer. Either can suffer to the extreme, or live blissful lives. It really depends. It seems like people who are the most realized suffer the least... so suffering is a good barometer. Whenever someone tells me they are enlightened (an oxymoron), I ask them, "When did you cease to suffer?"

Realization can happen at any level of intelligence. There are people who chop wood and carry water their entire lives who attain realization. There are people who are super intelligent who end up needing to satisfy that intelligence with endless reading and rational explorations who attain realization.

I don't think intelligence is a requirement for enlightenment, intelligence itself just has different requirements that may need to be satisfied.

There's also no formula for enlightenment. It's totally spontaneous.

Besides which, enlightenment isn't real. If enlightenment is real, then who becomes enlightened? Certainly not the one asking the question.
 
I feel like you're saying ignorance is bliss.
That might be right sometimes but it doesn't really have much to do with intelligence and IQ, as far as I know.
And since you mentioned IQ, one issue is that people with very low IQ often struggle a lot with everyday things, and that can lead to a lot of frustration, anxiety, depression, etc... Statistically speaking of course, I'm not talking about individuals since everyone is different.

Society can actually be pretty complicated and it's not a good feeling to be left behind, think about everything you need to do just to get by... Stuff like finishing high school, finding a job, paying taxes & doing other bureaucratic things, acquiring some sort of skill, building meaningful relationships, etc...
 
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Cheshire_Kat said:
As I look over my life (I'm in my mid 80's now) I can truthfully say that very little of it worked out the way I planned. I'm happy that it worked out, but like the old song goes :
"You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip sliding away" ....

:cool:
Click to expand...
what song is it,
one of my old frends we would listen to the radio and id always ask the band if i didnt know,
 
F.U.B.A.R. said:
It's simple. Ignorance is bliss...


I was cursed with a high level of intelligence, logic and analytical thinking from an early age. Unfortunately I was also cursed with a total inability to use those qualities to my advantage as I was stuck in a loop of self critical analysis along with a highly addictive personality.

Substance abuse seemed like the antidote to calming the storm in my brain, but in retrospect it only made things worse.

I always envied those people that could take mushrooms or LSD 'for a laugh'. It was never a laugh for me, it was a psychological assault course that could result in heaven or hell, which increasingly became hell as my life fucked up in so many ways.

I just wish I didn't think so hard sometimes...
Click to expand...
same here. I went down the same path and never lived up to the potential i had instead just numbing the restless mind with drugs.
 
I somehow think they're pretty nihilistic at core and use morality as somekind of shield to prevent them realizing their own pettiness. That is intelligent and horrifying.
 
JessFR said:
Fuck intelligence. Being really stupid isn't good either. Personally I think being of average intelligence is the ideal.
Click to expand...

Being highly intelligent is the bane of my existence. If I were not so smart I wouldn't have any desire to kill myself...but I am and I do.
 
Right?? If we are judging intelligence off of satisfying the ID then...fuck yeah dude is doing alright.
😂
 
F.U.B.A.R. said:
It's simple. Ignorance is bliss...


I was cursed with a high level of intelligence, logic and analytical thinking from an early age. Unfortunately I was also cursed with a total inability to use those qualities to my advantage as I was stuck in a loop of self critical analysis along with a highly addictive personality.

Substance abuse seemed like the antidote to calming the storm in my brain, but in retrospect it only made things worse.

I always envied those people that could take mushrooms or LSD 'for a laugh'. It was never a laugh for me, it was a psychological assault course that could result in heaven or hell, which increasingly became hell as my life fucked up in so many ways.

I just wish I didn't think so hard sometimes...
Click to expand...

I've been finding myself coming to these same conclusions lately, it's almost fitting reading this now. When my brain is functioning correctly, it's an absolutely beautiful thing. Unfortunately, sometimes that doesn't happen, and what can analyze complex problems and processes at the speed of light goes out of control and gets focused on things that aren't beneficial or healthy. Sometimes I wonder, if I could just not think about or understand certain things, maybe life would be easier. All I know, is I agree, I thought drugs were the antidote too, and I was gravely mistaken.

F.U.B.A.R. said:
Meanwhile, all those dumbfucks are progressing with their lives at the usual pace. Suddenly, it dawns on you that those people you previously had contempt for are outperforming you in life.
Click to expand...

The joke was always on us, it seems.
 
I have found being intelligent problematic in terms of finding happiness for most of my life. I have always been able to solve problems and work out strategies far faster than most of my peers. It did not necessarily translate into the highest academic grades but most people acknowledged me as “the smart one”.

When I was young it drove a wedge between me and most other people because they could sense how frustrated I was that they “didn’t get it”. Throughout my business career it impeded me because my superiors usually figured out I thought they were fucking idiots.

I think part of what drove me to drugs as a teenager was trying to deliberately handicap myself down to a level where I would think and see things like most other people. I never thought about them as a mystical or spiritual tool - I knew they were making me retarded and that was fine with me. I drank for years and years and slowly began to fit in with people.

I became most happiest though when I realised there are lots of different kinds of intelligence and knowledge and that each is worthy of equal respect. I lost my arrogance and began to mix with all kinds of different people and see things from new perspectives. However, sadly by that stage my career had burned out by me alienating all my colleagues and it was too late to become a model employee.
 
madness00 said:
Look, i don't have a lot to say on this.

I haven't rolled around in bed contemplating it.

Let's start with assuming intelligence is based on your intelligence quotient.

Someone with a high IQ could be over rotating on a quantum problem (IDK what quantum means). Or stuck trying to compare two unrelated entities.

Meanwhile someone with a low IQ is blankly staring at something orange, hoping to god it changes purple. It doesn't, so he moves on to fucking his dog without a second thought. It feels good. Yeah, man. Real good. Then he lays down and falls asleep in 5 minutes. No worries at all.

I do think those who can't find relation between a fence and a anchor to be more "intelligent" beings. Why? Because they are more present.

IMO, they tend to live more in the moment.

And that, IMO, is an art.

Edit: who's closer to enlightenment now?
Click to expand...
I made a similar thread to this...

The people who are considered the lower inadequate people are actually better at understanding spiritual and philosophical concepts and contradictions and paradox.

It’s the people who are high functioning, hard working and practical individuals who tend to have difficulty stepping outside of their own perspective and integrating two opposing sides and combining it into one. These are the people who do their homework and have jobs and are considered the “smart” ones or “normal” ones. And they also tend to be people who become politicians and law enforcers.

Everything is backwards.
 
4meSM said:
I feel like you're saying ignorance is bliss.
That might be right sometimes but it doesn't really have much to do with intelligence and IQ, as far as I know.
And since you mentioned IQ, one issue is that people with very low IQ often struggle a lot with everyday things, and that can lead to a lot of frustration, anxiety, depression, etc... Statistically speaking of course, I'm not talking about individuals since everyone is different.

Society can actually be pretty complicated and it's not a good feeling to be left behind, think about everything you need to do just to get by... Stuff like finishing high school, finding a job, paying taxes & doing other bureaucratic things, acquiring some sort of skill, building meaningful relationships, etc...
Click to expand...

I don't think "dumb" people are necessarily ignorant. And i made this thread not even considering levels of happiness.

All I'm saying as that they're more present and smarter in the sense that they are living a more "enlightened" life" if there's such a thing.

ovenbakedskittles said:
I made a similar thread to this...

The people who are considered the lower inadequate people are actually better at understanding spiritual and philosophical concepts and contradictions and paradox.

It’s the people who are high functioning, hard working and practical individuals who tend to have difficulty stepping outside of their own perspective and integrating two opposing sides and combining it into one. These are the people who do their homework and have jobs and are considered the “smart” ones or “normal” ones. And they also tend to be people who become politicians and law enforcers.

Everything is backwards.
Click to expand...

This is sort of it, though i didn't consider them having a better grasp of paradoxes and contradictions.

Now that i consider it, i don't believe it to be true. I don't think these mindful, "dumb" folk really have the capacity to pinpoint a paradox.

I just can't see a very "dumb" person explaining to me how enlightenment is a paradox. I just don't think that would happen.

But i DO believe they are better at "living non paradoxically" or are better at being consistent. I just don't think they are aware of it.
 
Nothing whets the intelligence more than a passionate suspicion, nothing develops all the faculties of an immature mind more than a trail running away into dark. (Stefan Zweig)
 
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