similarminds.com

[dionysusAJ]

[PiccoloNamek]

How is life as an intellectual? To put it bluntly, pretty crappy. It all starts going downhill when you realize that 99.99% of people in the world walk through life without ever thinking about or questioning anything. The blank, unknowing, uncaring looks on their faces! I can't stand even stand the sight of them! It must be horrible to lead such a shallow existance... but then again, they probably aren't smart enough to realize how horrible it is.

To quote one of my favorite video games ever: "Most men complacently accept "knowledge" as "truth"; they are sheep, ruled by fear." -Sydney Losstarot

[Mother]

How is life as an Intellectual???

I find this a bizzare platform for a forum. Have you all gone completely mad? life as an intellectual is no different than life as anybody struggling to come to terms with who they are...... All this 'nobody understands', and 'how many long words can I get into a sentence?' is quite frankly embarrassing. Do you all spend your time whining about the difficulties of being accepted by others? Perhaps all that is needed to make life more interesting for a so called intellectual is a little respect for your fellow beings. I find the arrogance of the 'intellectuals' mind-bogglingly scary. If you want to go and sit in a corner and read a book or talk endlessly about concepts and philosophy why do you need the acceptance of the general population? Has all your intellectualising addled your brains? Has it ever occured to anyone that say a pig farmer might get frustrated at the ignorance of city folk who assume pig farming isn't worhty of note. Or, a hairstylist may be trying to tell someone that isn't interested, about a new product or style, he/she would have to accept that the person he/she is talking to isn't interested. I suggest you intellectuals need to do the exact same thing and assume that the people you are trying to tell are not interested and that if you all flock together that is just fine and dandy, just because you have all given yourself the Intellectual label doesn't make you any different to any other person. Just deal with it with a little more grace.

Ps. I may not be an intellectual by everyone elses standards but I do recognise whining when I see it, and there are pages of it.

[grek0]

loool go Mom go!!

[Guest_Vylence]

You are saying we aren't entitled to whine? And yes I like to believe I am intellectual.

In the cosmic scheme of things I really don't think I am any better off than a pig farmer. Though I am very different then the average pig farmer, just in the terms of what I do in the average day. Basically you are saying that we look down on others because they do something different, same as they do.

Though personally I don't see it that way, I try to find ways that most people are the same. There will always still be differences. And with this fact in mind I find most think about their situation yes, but some look beyond their place. The real difference I think most intellectuals are griping about is that if pressed we could sympathize with them, but they can't with us. Or at least choose not to. The arguement I guess is that we the minority spend more time understanding them, then they spend understanding us. Which means we look beyond our place.

Thats a tenous arguement to make really. How many Astro physicists know the nuances of flipping burgers? Few to be sure. How many burger flippers have degrees?

Hmmm, kinda lost where I was going here.

Really anyone should have a right to complain, if this is a argument of minorty vs. the majority. Should we as intellectuals be pushing civilization towards everyone being intellectual?

Can anyone have the right to be pushing for a majority. It seems yes, in the majority you obviously get perks over the minority. Simple enough to see that. So, yes, it does come down to us pushing against them.

And if the arguement is whether, again, there is any difference between us and them, we have to define ourselves. What is an intellectual? Really to be funny it could be as simple as someone who cares to think there is a difference between themselves and a majority. Which is kinda funny. Funny in that how many differences can there be if everyone can just decide there is a difference.

Oh well, that thought of burgers made me hungry for one.

[invicta]

I don't think there is a reason to compare occupation to occupation if we want to discuss intellecutalism.

Much of science is simply collecting information, not necessarily using it in innovative ways...science is highly compartmentalised. And if we are even going to make a passing nod at academia, well much of that is just time wasting for political reasons.

Your pig farmer, on the other hand, has all day to intellectualize, the pigs are not going to be taking up his time with beaureaucratic nonsense. As does your burger flipper. People can be as intellectual as they choose, it makes no difference what they do for money.

The difference is this: People that want to learn do.

[JJ]

"Really anyone should have a right to complain"

Yep, and others have the right to call him a whining baby.

[bigdorkpeter]

Sorry, Mom, but my deployment of a narcissistic defense doesn't falsify the contents of my statement. This also refers back to the Jung quote someone posted. Unlike Jung, philosophers realize that, logically, any ad hominem argument is garbage.

I may as well remain on the high horse while I claim that everyday people suffer from Heideggerian "fallenness" whereas I, as a deep-thinking intellectual , have more perspective. Yet it is precisely this that makes life more difficult for me.

Aside from this Myers-Briggs stuff, is there anyone else out there who considers herself/himself to be characterologically schizoid? The psychoanalytic model I'm familiar with places character type on one axis (schizoid, narcissistic, antisocial, depressive, etc...) and organization level/functioning on the other ("normal" --> neurotic --> borderline --> psychotic.) I.e., on this view you can have any of the character types as dominant while still being functional and mentally healthy. Also, healthier people exibit a wider range of behaviors and defenses than those who are less healthy. At the borderline and psychotic levels behaviors become more stereotyped.

Anyway, this sort of model makes sense to me and I consider myself to be a schizoid at the normal (or sometimes neurotic end of the scale.

--I don't feel like I belong in any group or subculture (I'm an "artist" but not this sort of bohemian hipster-type I see everywhere here in Brooklyn. After all, nonconformists are simply conforming to different norms.) I can't date anyone because they're too uninteresting or shallow. I've thought about placing a personal ad to the tune of "Male Schizoid Personality seeks Female Schizoid Personality for staring contest."

--I get lost in trance-like thought & fantasy, I can think of tons of photographs to take but hardly ever get around to taking them. I go to bars but find that the 300 pound gorilla from New Jersey sitting next to me is better at meeting women than I am--not that I have any specific sexuality to begin with. My jokes are often obtuse and absurd.

--And I find writing academic papers to be orgasmic fun, especially when I can think of tight, complex sentences and write about hilarious philosophical concepts like the Nothing. Oh, give me more, baby!

--There's nothing I hate more than people who think they can defeat my argument despite not being able to understand that they aren't really speaking to the point I'm making. Got logic? Apparently not. Hence I avoid intellectual discussions.

Ultimately, I like myself the way I am. However, I wish I knew more people like me! I hate having to "dumb myself down" in order to have a conversation. I didn't used to do it but I must have seemed pretty eccentric at the time.

Anyway, sorry for the immense sililoquay or diatribe I've just written. This is an interesting thread.

"That's all very well and good in practice, but does it work in theory?" --Althusser

[brainiac girl]

Try living as an intellectual woman, interested in cosmology and quantum physics! Having masqueraded as a bimbo for most of my life in order to fit-in socially, and mostly keeping my intellect to myself not to bore or offend others, I find that as I get older I care less what others think and more what I think myself. I suppose it's like any other orientation to the world - mostly of interest to oneself. So I suppose seclusion has my vote.

[Leela]

[SIO]

LOL!!!

Intellectual : An intellectual is a person who uses his or her intellect to study, reflect, or speculate on a variety of different ideas.

Intellectual is a real word. But here it has become yet another label people pin on themselves for a feeling of superiority. No more, no less. It's really ironic though that here's a place full of "intellectuals" and most can't see past the label or the warm fuzzy feeling from calling themselves such. Creating this elitist group/whine session is an embarassment to humanity. If it wasn't for people like Mother, I'd have lost hope ages ago. But MAN, do I love the irony. IRONY IRONY IRONY! Keep it up, guys!

[Vylence]

Arg, SIO, maybe you don't spend lots of time with people who constantly question you or make you feel unusual for having different ideas, but I have. Some of this maybe whining but I have been around people that just tell me I think too much.

It can be hard to be around people that tell you no, they have never thought of the possiblity. No, it can't be true because they haven't thought of the possibility. And that yes you are odd because you did think of the possibility.

I understand that you could argue by your deffinition that anyone is intellectual. Though when you run into people who have never considered things you have, and disagree with you because it just is so different from the few things they have considered, or were told, you begin to see a distinction between yourself and them.

I understand that everyone doesn't have as much time to speculate as I do. I agree there are people out there who hate to speculate. I don't look down on these people. Though I also understand there are times when they don't want to get along with me, and there will be times I can't stand them.
_________________
9w1 sx, INTP

[invicta]

SIO does not ingratiate him/herself. I like SIO.

[evolvingcode]

[SIO]