I really shouldn't read certain sites on the web, it seems to just add fuel to an already worryingly high level of misanthropy that I have. I think I only do it when bored, I'm aware of how little of the garbage on the interweb I actually read. Once I've read nexus I start to think "er, what now?"
I think my all-time number 1 pet hate is people who feel the need to constantly go on and on about how intelligent they are. Well, that's not quite it, because the truly objectionable thing that comes along with it is how more often than not, people who repeatedly remind everyone about how clever they are, are actually pretty damn far removed from the intellectual heavyweight they claim to be.
It seems to me to be quite an immature thing to do. Most teenagers at some time or other during adolescence hold a belief that "nobody understands them", or that older people just aren't as clever as they are. It's quite a normal part of growing up I think, the problem lies in that a frightening number of people don't shed this belief when they reach adulthood.
I remember as a teen thinking that the fact that my parents didn't understand how to program the video, or that they couldn't use the computer meant they weren't as intelligent as young people. Yet when I hit adulthood, it became totally clear how wrong I was. Again, a normal thing I believe.
The ability to use new technology or to do the other tasks required to live in the modern world of credit cards, the internet etc. is fuck-all to do with intelligence. I wouldn't know how to handle massive fishing nets, my dad would. Just like in the future I won't understand these crazy kids and their fancy hoverboards. It's nothing to do with actual intelligence, it's just the fact that different generations have different skill-sets and grew up in different periods of time, when you had to learn different skills and trades to make your way through life.
I always hated it at uni when people would get sneery at the fact that somebody couldn't program a computer as good as them. Well done, do you want a fucking medal? Just because you know more than somebody else in a particular field does not make you their better.
Anyway, people seem to hang about on certain message boards intent on putting others down and making sure everybody knows how clever they personally think they are. You can spot them, they often have quotes from writers or politicians as the footer to their posts. You see, even though they didn't write this particular quote, they want you to know that if they were to scribble down their beliefs and points of view that it would be something as fucking clever or witty as the quote they use. Check it out, it's not a quote from a song they like, something that actually touches them in an emotional way, it'll be something a writer has said, usually proclaiming how much cleverer he is than the stupid little drones who share his oxygen.
I know a lot of extremely clever people, people who think about what they say, who back it up with knowledge and who have the courage of their convictions. Without fail, none of them are the sort who'd go around with such a nauseating air of superiority.
I guess you could argue I'm doing the same thing here, yet I am painfully aware of my shortcomings. I wish I wasn't sometimes, I may have a greater peace of mind, yet I'm willing to admit if I'm wrong. I'm fully aware I'm far from perfect, by knowing this I hope that I can correct things that I do wrong. So many people seem to walk through life unable to accept that they have any shortcomings at all. It's a dangerous and false way to be. In fact, it makes you a cunt.
It's predominantly a male thing, the need to stress your importance and power to other males in the tribe. You see it everywhere, some use the threat of violence to show their strength, other parts of society prefer to show they're the alpha-male of the sensitive tribe by continuously stressing the power of their brain.
I think it's fucking retarded, the need for man to fit into his tribe. We aren't cavemen anymore, the only reason there is still this redundant hierarchy in society is down to people feeling the need to pigeon hole themselves, and to boost their fragile esteem and confidence by attempting to claim a higher place in the man pecking order. Macho-posturing doesn't have to just involve fighting and foolish acts of faux-bravery, it can also entail endless statements about how great your intellect is. It's 2004, I don't feel the need to trace my links back to prehistoric man and explain away the fact that I'm acting like an illogical twat, down to the way early man and primates acted. We're all different, people do things based on many factors.
I think I've said it before but the world needs fewer people screaming out 'RESPECT MY BRAIN!' when there is very little to back it up. I've had enough of the gloaters and the smart-arses who delude themselves that they have vast tracks of knowledge, when if they stopped and had a look at their life they'd realise it is really nothing to shout about. Knowing tonnes of obscure facts about inconsequential rubbish (or pretending you do anyway) won't get you love, decent friends, or make you happy in the long-term. More often than not it will make people laugh at you, or avoid your company. You're a fucking bore, and the superior feeling you derive from it just makes it amusing.
I feel a lot of young people nowadays need to learn some humility, show a bit of empathy for others and be a bit more at ease with themselves. I see some who will show this humbleness or self-deprecation, so it's not totally disheartening yet the problem seems to lie when people get to their late twenties and still act like the haughty, conceited teenagers they long ago stopped being. It's not the end of your world if people perceive you to have some sort of weakness. More often that not people don't give a fuck. Decent people, the sort who are actually aware of themselves enough to allow weakness in others and see it in themselves, are not going to hold it against you that you are different than they are. Who gives it a shit? Doesn't diversity of personality, belief and experience make life fucking interesting and worth living?