[lit-ideas] Re: on the home front
- From: Andy <mimi.erva@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 07:04:51 -0700 (PDT)
Can you explain how intelligence is sexy? Intelligence is the antithesis of
sexy. Intelligence is downright threatening. It's a reason given for John
Kerry's inelectability, that he was too intelligent, too upscale. People
couldn't relate to him.
Just speculating here, but the ever escalating sex obsession seems at least
coincidentally to be directly related to the ever lowering level of
intelligence. People are downright ignorant of just about anything and
everything. Not that they don't apply what they know. They simply don't know
anything. They're blank slates, whether it comes to history, recent or any
other kind, literature, geography, economics, the vastness of science, you name
it. World affairs end at we're all good, they're all bad and that's why they
hate us and let's get 'em. They have no idea there's a great big world and
universe out there. Maybe for most of recorded history the information wasn't
out there to be known, but now it is and few, so few as to be virtually no one,
wants it. People, not for no reason called consumers, get through a day
lusting after the fantasies they're sold, or sell, on television. Money
distinguishes no one. From poachers in
Africa to poachers on Wall Street, they're all equal in their ignorance. And
that is just a statement of fact.
Also, power may be an aphrodisiac, but so is powerlessness. Not just in my
opinion, it's the basis behind the younger woman syndrome (or younger man).
Someone significantly younger is likely to be less experienced, easily
impressed, etc. Sexy and young (i.e., powerless) go together. Truly, if
intelligence were sexy, the world would be a very different place.
Changing the subject, or not as the case may be, here's a documentary called
the Power of Nightmares that is an absolute must watch. It compares and
contrasts the Neocons with the Islamists. Truly, mythology makes the world go
round. The documentary is feature length but well worth the effort. It
redeems this godforsaken 21st century. Very much worth watching through to the
end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N39uAJ05vVM
--- On Sat, 8/9/08, Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: on the home front
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Saturday, August 9, 2008, 3:54 AM
Julie Krueger wrote
> I doubt that power is the ultimate aphrodisiac, but you gotta admit that
> not only is power sexy, but power and sexuality are rather inextricably
> intertwined whether for good or ill....
Some years ago, a colleague of mine in the French department (not
herself French) proposed that intelligence was sexy. Philosophers tend
to argue about the meaning of 'intelligence' until it's too late
for
most of them to test her hypothesis.
Robert Paul
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