True Intelligence

Modern man is quite stupid. And the driving force of that stupidity is the rampant and out of control human ego.

Before I continue I will define my terms:

in•tel•li•gence / (pronounced: inˈteləjəns) / noun

The ability to respond effectively to environmental demands.

The universe (or nature if you prefer) rewards intelligence and punishes stupidity.

And this, by the way, is a MUCH more accurate summation of Darwin’s theories than the often misunderstood “survival of the fittest” quote, but I digress…

So, what are examples of intelligence?

A strong wind is blowing and a palm tree bends and remains rooted, while a pine tree falls. In this way, the palm tree’s natural intelligence was rewarded.

Why was this an example of intelligence? The environmental condition of high wind demanded flexibility and so the more “intelligent” tree survived. Notice that no “thinking” was involved in this.

Another example of intelligence:

A math problem is proposed and one student who studied the mathematics involved solves the equation while another does not.

In this example what we would call classical “thinking” does apply, but then again mathematics is one environmental demand in which “thinking” is actually intelligent.

Now let’s discuss some stupidity:

Rampant industrial growth leads to pollution of water supplies and therefore little plastic bottles are created to “solve” the problem of having available drinking water. Result? An ocean full of little plastic bottles.

Now, that’s stupid.

The cause?

The massively over-inflated egos of the industrialists. They were stupid because they did not conform to the environmental demands. Humans need drinkable water, and the egos of the industrialists did not allow them to see that environmental demand, and so they made stupid decisions in the name of greed and hyper-inflated egocentricity.

I could, of course, go on and on with similar examples of modern man’s stupidity, but I think this one example will suffice.

And so, how is one to avoid stupidity?

Well, much like the palm tree, humans will no longer be stupid when they are able to move WITH the flow of nature and no longer have some bizarre egocentric idea that they are “taming” or “conquering” nature.

We’ve tried that conflict-based approach, and we’re losing.

How do we change our stupid ways?

We first conquer the ego. Then we heal old wounds that keep us from opening our hearts. Once healed, we quiet the mind that is the house of the ego and open our hearts as our new navigational tools.

Once this is done our actions flow “wu wei” (“no forcing” or “naturally”) and become intelligent and in line with the demands of the environment.

Unless this is done mankind’s stupidity may very well be its fatal flaw and it will fall like the rigid pine in the high winds.

“But I believe intelligence (in the form of thinking – M.P.) is probably overrated.  It’s not necessarily a good thing for a species’ survival.  Bacteria have survived without it for millions of years…” – Stephen Hawking