On Intellectualism #It'sOn

Most people think to be an intellectual is some form of high-minded thinking or rarified brain power. To those type of people, reciting quotes from famous works of literary geniuses, conversing with a highfalutin manner of speaking replete with big words and abstract concepts, is the way to be. I should know. I admired such people, I wanted to be like them. I started to fall in love with words, not people. Holding words and turns of phrases in storage somewhere is my mind, waiting for the opportunity to use them correctly in a sentence so as to impress others, they way others impressed me. As you do. Surely that's one way to be attractive, through intelligence if not beauty. Talk about a consolation of intellect, a la "Alain de Botton." He has one chapter in his bestseller book "The Consolations of Philosophy", if I recall it correctly, about this very topic. He fires off a list of subjects which he is well-versed in. I felt stupid just reading the list, so far away were those matters from my level of understanding. Talk about it being all Greek to me, as the expression goes. Still I read on and told myself that the very act of reading such a book is prove positive of my intellectual abilities. Who else would take the time from their busy life, full of consumer-filled enticements, to pursue high-order learning, like Alain De Botton's books? I coined the term "pop philosophy" as a new genre that Alain occupies. He is an emissary sent by the gods to revive ancient wisdom and great knowledge from the dead, to save us from the hallow coldness of modernity. He writes books that simplify and make accessible the old texts of yonder years, whose language we no longer understand, like old English or Hieroglyphics. All is not lost, we can still retrace our steps home, like Hansel and Gretel, his books seem to say. We can use our intellect to outwit the evil step mother, and repurpose the bread as a map; bread is not just food for nourishment. Bread can be life. That is the point I'm trying to make, dear reader. The very idea that we should leave "thinking" and intellect to the elite, is the most heinous crime against humanity if ever there was one. We come fitted with brains; we are hired for our abilities to use them, as a past supervisor of mine liked to remind our team. Why then do we glorify others' intellect and not see it in ourselves? Why do we allow society to reduce our ideas and create prisons of the mind? Since when is education about snuffing out curiosity and thinking, rather than celebrating all the diversity of thought like we used to do? I am fortunate in that I have had a tumultuous education, being carted from one country to another, thereby no state agenda took hold. If anything, the contradictions were so glaringly obvious, all I "learned" to do is question everything. Not a trait that people find endearing, I must say. But definitely, one I wish was more prevalent in society at large. Ultimately, the intellect is not about a place above, or a setting apart. It is about survival in the real sense. It is about ingenuity not genius. It is "street smart," not academic incantations. It is about practice, not theory. Intellect is for the common man, by the common man, not the professors. Time to rethink our heroes. Here's a tip. The code word is think. Happy thinking.