The Intellectual Yet Idiot is a production of modernity hence has been accelerating since the mid twentieth century, to reach its local supremum today, along with the broad category of people without skin-in-the-game who have been invading many walks of life. Why? Simply, in most countries, the government’s role is between five and ten times what it was a century ago (expressed in percentage of GDP). The IYI seems ubiquitous in our lives but is still a small minority and is rarely seen outside specialized outlets, think tanks, the media, and universities – most people have proper jobs and there are not many openings for the IYI.
I’d challenge that assertion.
Just read Dilbert!
Thanks for that Charlie. I liked this little truism:
The vitriol Taleb spills on Sunstein and Thaler is well deserved. These two IYIs justify the increased intrusion of the state/elite under the auspices of “Benevolent Paternalism.”
Yes, the state/elites(redundant?) think of us all as retarded children who need their maternal guidance.
Well I have a message for them, “I ain’t retarded and you ain’t my mammy.”
By the by, since they are baby killers, I wouldn’t want or trust their brand of motherly love.
Yeah, yeah, anybody who thinks about it knows what is happening…not so much why.
And so, it just keeps happening…if they’re so stupid, how come they’re winning?
I have always found that the “simple” people of the world … mostly those who work with their hands for a living … have much clearer and deeper insight into LIFE than does the pseudo-educated, pseudo-intellectuals, who make government policy. It seems as though the further from the earth, and manual labor one gets … the less one actually KNOWS or UNDERSTANDS.
Actually Stalin had a name for these IYI’s.
He called them useful idiots. They’ve been around for awhile. What makes it different now is that they are running things and there are a lot more of them. People who make a living by what they say or write not by what they actually do.
When a normal person screws up in a job they are fired because there is some material issue – lives risked, money lost, customers affected, etc. When an IYI screws up since it is only words there are no consequences.
In other words IYI’s lead consequence free lives. So they are never faced with situations where a wrong move/an inept decision/a poor judgment gets them into a mess.
Why did an image of Stephane Dion keep flashing over and over in my head as I read that?
The proper term for this sort of person is “sciolist”: someone who pretends to be intellectual and well-informed, but only has superficial knowledge at best and little to no real understanding.
I understood most of this, though it is somewhat vague, but when I got todynamic stochastic equilibrium modeling I had to go and look it up. That really is confusing!!!
Outstanding word (previously unknown by me) … however the definition I read added the word … pretentious … to your description. Isn’t THAT the truth ! The less one knows, the more they act as though they do … usually with arrogance and pretentiousness
One of my favorite Chinese (Confucious ?) quotes is …”The empty drum sounds loudest”
Words of wisdom Deplorably infamous Kenji…
Now look at a Canadian map…Most all Canadians live in large urban centers. I call them CITIOTS; people who live in asphalt jungles, disconnected with nature and hopelessly dependent on others to plant, feed, repair, build, maintain for them because well, lot’s of them are well “educated” as you know…The saddest part is that they pretty much rule at election cycles.
Government is the reason we can’t have nice things.