From one end of the world to another, nations, communities and organizations are now ruled by individuals who know very little about the world or even about the people who occupy the spaces that they lord over. No continent is spared the ignominy of this disheartening development. This has become a world of brilliant people ruled by dunces. This is now the story of our world, and it is bad.
Although many, like me, would argue that we no longer embrace and celebrate brilliance as much as we used to, it is true that every now and again, we experience sparks of brilliance that remind us of what our engaged brains are capable of. We still have brilliant people making incredible discoveries in their daily lives – such as Dr. Bennett Omalu, the Nigerian-born US-based neuropathologist, who discovered what is now widely known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the brains of dead American football players. That discovery has forever changed the perception and administration of American football
Despite the sparks of brilliance about which I speak, however, it is my contention that our world has regressed intellectually because, in most aspects of life, it now appears that we are engaged in a shameless race to the bottom. It has become very difficult to recall that time when children were not embarrassed to be called nerds because they were brilliant; or that time when teenagers were desperate to be friends with their very brilliant peers; or the time when parents wanted their children to date and marry only brilliant boys – and girls. Now, schools are filled with children who do not wish to be identified as brilliant for fear that they would not be accepted into the hip social groups, and society is replete with parents who want their children to only marry wealthy people, notwithstanding how the wealth was acquired and/or the credibility of the suitor.
So, look at the world in which we now live. Dunces are celebrated, even as their ascendancy to power and their display of authority either dumb down the intellectual abilities of others around them or make it difficult and/or dangerous for those others to speak truth to power. In some cases, otherwise brilliant people succumb to the lure of material because the exercise of brilliance has been relegated to the glow and acknowledgment of prestige based on wealth. No wonder our world is in so much trouble. It takes more than power and authority to create and maintain a just society. It also takes the ability to understand both the consequences of injustice and the advantages of having a socially just society. In other words, it takes brilliance as well. It takes brilliance to recognize, support and promote the values of a just society. It takes more than determination to develop an original idea in a world saturated by information that can be used effectively for good or bad. It takes brilliance to conceive of, and act on an idea that benefits others beyond the confines of one’s nepotistic system.
Brilliant piece. These are serious times. I say with full conviction that no one who has lived through the past fifty years and beyond, has witnessed the level of obscurantism that is often perpetrated by those entrusted with positions of leadership. Once upon a time, you had to earn the right to be heard. People had to know something about you; they had to be apprised of your credentials and your track record. Not so anymore. Today, any moron can sit behind a computer, type anything they wish, with no iota of truth; even expose their foolishness in the process and still have millions of followers. Go figure. The loudest clown in the room pulls the largest crowds and ultimately becomes the credible one. The intellectual life, if it is genuine, is a life of strain. The business of the intellectual is the stringency business. Growing up with my siblings, our parents inculcated in us the moral obligation to be intelligent. Professor, I applaud you. Your article is spot on. Today, nations are ruled by exceedingly unmoralistic moralists, except for a handful of nations. We are inundated with worthless information and we read, and read only to find out how confused the world has become. The tragedy is, that the more we have access to, and the more we claim in abundance of supply, the more empty our lives have become. Just look at the spike in the rate of suicide. We are living in a time when sadly, we mourn the death of truth. We were once thinking beings but with the advent of post modernism, we have become existential beings who believe that there’s no such thing as absolute truth, no such thing as meaning, and no such thing as certainty. Therefore, it has become relatively easy for a bully or some mad man to reinvent himself in this environment, lie to the masses to gain their trust in their quest for power. Truth is dead. Andrei Sakharov once said “I always thought that the most powerful weapon in the world was the bomb. The most powerful weapon in the world is truth” Questions merit truthful answers. Without truthful answers to life’s nagging questions, people will struggle to find meaning to their lives. Many flock to Pastors and Church buildings to find true meanings to their lives and solutions to nagging questions only to be disappointed. You can’t lay the blame totally on the pastors. Christians have become lazy- searching for quick fixes. What a tragedy? We have postponed thinking, truth, and definition; and there are no more absolutes. Diana Trilling wrote: “ But with us it is always too late for mind, yet never too late for honest stupidity, always a little too late for understanding, never too late for righteous, bewildered wrath; always too late for thought, never too late for naive moralizing. The world is in desperate need of truthfulness and genuine love.
I have ruminated over this seeming enigma. I have pondered antecedents and sought logical as well as philosophical answers to the consistency of the phenomenon you have elucidated in your, yes, brilliant post (pun unintended). It would seem that the few illustrations of historical brilliance you cited are indeed just exceptions and that society quickly regresses to normalcy from such deviations. For instance, South Africa moved through two quick iterations after Nelson Mandela to Jacob Zuma. Extremely selfish and parochial successions of Church leaders have clipped the heels of Martin Luther King Jnr. The world has hardly seen authentic successors to Socrates, Plato, Dante, etc..
I have often wondered why military generals and conquerors ruled ancient Rome and Greece, while the philosophers were in the background. Braun versus brain? Or is it natural that people will generally gravitate towards their kind? In which case, in a true democracy where the majority wins, the brilliant minority will always be that – and sadly therefore thought to be different and elitist! Are they aloof? Are they disconnected from reality? Otherwise, how were they ab initio marginalized despite their brilliance?
What's the role of religion in all of this? The Eastern religions teach acceptance of what is. The Abrahamic-based faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam clearly teach that it is God that appoints rulers. Also that he exalts the "humble" and abases the "proud". The biblical account of the appointment of David as King underlines how the Christian God makes His choices in picking the "least" of the brethren. Indeed also of how King Jesus Christ came out of Nazareth with a reputation for nothing good! Or of babes and sucklings, who Christians are admonished to emulate their innate innocence, inheriting the main Kingdom or the grand prize.
In the final analysis, it just might be a question of values and then of perspective – knowledge or brilliance is true power not position, and God's true people perish for a lack of it. Cold comfort perhaps!
Brilliant article! Yes it's alarming and frightening that mediocres are the others of the day. People now celebrate thieves, lies, murderers and bullyings that the whole world is afraid to speak up or even think for fear of intimidation. Thank you for reminding us of the yester years of courage, dignity and self worth. God bless!!!