Monday, July 13, 2015

This is intelligence?

EpporuL yAr yAr vAy kEtpinum apporuL mey poruL kAnbadaRivu - Tirukkural

Loosely translation : True intelligence discerns facts based on what is said and not based on who is saying it.

Have you seen this thing about these sayings and quotes? They seem to be designed to make life difficult for you. You go to them, thinking that they will help you to make life easier for yourself, and they send you out with a flea in your ear, and a conviction that life looked a lot easier before you were foolish enough to take recourse to them.

Take this one for example. There you were thinking of life much like it was at school. You sit in class, the teacher squiggles on the blackboard and says this is 'A'. Did you spend time thinking whether it was really 'A' or not OR did you take it for granted that it would be 'A' because the teacher said so? And now this chap TiruvaLLuvar pokes his nose in and says that you cannot lead your life assuming things to be true just because they are said by some people (teachers or otherwise) and not true just because they are said by others (your juniors, the school peon...). Well, you can, but you ought not to consider yourself intelligent if you do.

Being considered intelligent is sort of nice. So, you think that, maybe, you should apply his concepts. Maybe there is an exception only for schoolchildren and adults have to operate by different rules. The problem with it is that it seems to involve too much...err...thinking.

You just cannot take it for granted that pigs can fly, just because your friend says so, and start building nests for them. Nor can you sneer at your foe when he says that pigs prefer sties to live in, at least in comparison to nests on top of tall trees. Just as you were relaxing and thinking that you cannot go far wrong if you believed everything your friend said and disbelieved everything your foe said, this old man from the past pops up and upsets your harmony.

That's fine as far as friends and foes go - they are largely your age group and can hardly be expected to know any more than you. Teachers are all right - they can be trusted to know, or so you think. Then up pops your neighborhood kid - a nerd to end all nerds - and proves her wrong about what she thinks is possible with a Tablet. Huh? You revise your rules and say that if it is Infotech, the young are right and the old are wrong - and your octogenarian grandpa helps you out when you are stuck operating a spreadsheet! This old man from the past really does muck up your life. Centuries gone since he last took a breath, so how did he know about your neighborhood nerd or your octogenarian grandpa or even about Infotech that what he says proves relevant today?

If that were all, it would not be so bad. The problem with the guy is that what he says also means that you cannot assume that a woman dressed differently is 'asking for it', merely because your grandpa said that such was the case. You cannot assume that anyone ranging from a newborn babe to a doddering old man, belonging to a different religion, is out to shake the very foundations of your own, and that killing them will guarantee your own quota of houris in Heaven, merely because your religious leader says so. You cannot assume that there is no value in whatever has been developed or conceived in a different culture, merely because your own leaders have told you that all that is good is only there in your own.

In short, this chappie - TiruvaLLuvar - makes it very difficult to live. Being considered intelligent is nice, all right, but it involves too much hard work - thinking! Being an idiot is so...stress-free.

It is a no-brainer as to what I chose to be and, I am sure, most of humanity agrees with me.

P.S: A response to a 3-quote challenge, tagged by Rachna

18 comments:

  1. Wow! Seriously in my childhood, I used to take it at face value that elders knew better. Who would dare question a teacher or a parent even if one was doubtful about their facts. Now, I double check before I tell my son something. You know that chap google is killing my authority in matters intellectual. And my doctor when fed up with my question tosses "Who is the doctor here?" The chap, Thirru, was a very smart one, eh?

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    1. Very - 1330 short pithy lines (the Indian haiku I suppose :) ) but every one of them filled with wisdom. Thiruvalluvar is truly one of a kind.

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  2. It's above me, buddy! In the first go at least...blame my limited intelligence:(
    Will definitely give it a second try as it is by you:) I learn from you:)

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    1. Oops! All that I meant, and Tiruvalluvar said, was that do not judge the information based on your opinion of the giver of the information. Assess the information for its own worth and not based on whether you think the person who said it is worthy of respect or not.

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    2. Thank you boss for this help!
      The garrulous and effusive nature of your write kept me wondering whether I was getting to the real message...so I was almost there:)

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    3. Amit ji,sometimes i have to do a headstand to understand Suresh's posts :)

      And i guess we are going to read more of those short pithy lines.
      Am i right Suresh?

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    4. Ouch! Am I that difficult to understand? Head-stand is right, though - I normally seem to say the reverse of what I am actually saying :)

      One more, Indu - it is a 3-quote tag.

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  3. So that means I shouldn't take your analysis on its face value either? :D
    But seriously, you do make a very important point here. Something we must remember and recall over and over especially in this age of this-expert and that-expert, this special commentator or that veteran scholar! In today's world we also have the lure of commercial success and political gains which make people, especially the "experts" give their expert opinion on a matter and then take back their words the very next day. So how to even begin to trust them in the first place?
    A very good post, Suresh!

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    1. Yes, Beloo, you should not :) Taking something for granted merely because you trust/respect the someone who said it is not a sign of intelligence., according to Tiruvalluvar. Assessing the truth for yourself is the mark of intelligence.

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  4. Think before you act on what is said, not just act because someone said so. True. Very true. Though I do agree with Amit, I had to read it twice :D Not a waste of thinking, anyway. :)

    PS: CS, an "if" seems to have become an "is" in the 4th para. O:-) Or at least, I think so. :D

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    1. Do not assume anything as true just because you respect the one saying it OR assume something is false because you do not respect him, is also the message :)

      Thanks - it WAS a typo. Corrected it.

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  5. Loved reading this post. It took me back to an amazing movie I watched last year, called 'Aankhon Dekhi'. No big cast but just a bunch of great actors,trying to stress on the fact that everything that is true might not be the truth.

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    1. Thanks Akanksha! There is another Tamil saying that says, "What you saw is false; what you heard is false; the only truth is what you analysed and understood." Which perfectly echoes what seems to have been the pith of 'Aankhon Dekhi'

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  6. Thinking and Living…

    Thinking would define how we will act, behave, what choices and decisions we will make also what we achieve academically, professionally etc , and that is why for a successful life healthy thinking is important.

    So here are some points highlighting how to think well…
    First, we are obsessed with the “intelligent” tag we give to people. It is immaterial how intelligent anyone is, it is not a big deal and intelligence is multi-dimensional, one is good at one thing and another at another thing. World is big enough to hold all kinds of people, branding someone as “not so intelligent as another” is an unwise thing giving rise to unnecessary inferiority and superiority complex. What is important to realise is that if the existing intelligence is used as well as it can be, it would be enough for an average person to do well in life.

    Ok, now we are all on a level platform, no one is going to be judgemental. Accepting the thinking ability we have, we have got to make best use of it and get on with life, so next time no more complains related to the extent of one’s or anyone else’s intellect.

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    1. The ability to think is what you speak of, Maria! The differences in types of intelligence and all that. What Tiruvalluvar speaks of is in someone not being intelligent when he stops APPLYING his ability and merely judges facts based on who is saying it.

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  7. Well... I think one has to read between the lines to actually know what your implying, I am sure!!... btw Thivalvar he is pride for the tamilians, all respect to the guy full of wisdom(:...

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    1. Hahaha! Yes - that is always an issue. Most of my posts have the main idea ONLY between the lines :)

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