from Verse Fifty-EightThose who never forget to be smart for even a second inevitably burden their essential nature. Those who never forget to put on appearances even on a walk of one hundred steps inevitably burden their physical bodies.~ Wen-tzu: Understanding the Mysteries ~
If there is one thing all humans share in common, it must be our vanity!While most people who know me well would state that I seem to be a very un-vain person, this view is not correct. I certainly fall prey to the first aspect from the passage above. I'm a highly intelligent bloke and I tend to shove this fact in people's faces. Generally, I do so unintentionally -- though that is NO excuse -- but sometimes I do so very willfully.
Back when Della and I were dating, there was an occasion when she convinced me that we should go out with her co-worker Janine and Janine's boyfriend for coffee. Within five seconds, I determined that this other couple were conservative, Bible-thumping rednecks. (What have I gotten myself into, I shuddered.)
What I should have done is sat there as quietly as possible; basically what Della was hoping I would do. Oh, but not me!! I spent the better part of the hour running rings around them intellectually which, in this case, wasn't hard to do. Janine later told Della that she thought I was a complete jerk and the sad fact is that she was entirely correct! I behaved like an oaf.
I allowed my vanity to get the best of me.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
Difficult to forget when all around are reminding you, constantly, in their mindless judging of the "you" that they perceive.
ReplyDeleteDifficult but far from impossible.
Sit by a pond. Watch a frog. Look up and see a crow do a series of slow-rolls for the fun of it. Gape in awe at this...
While you do so, you are effortlessly being the essential "you". Vanity ceases to be relevant.
As for intelligence: the mind is a tool, sharp or dull. It is not who you are.
If your argument was the stronger, why was this oafish? Are we obliged to let the intellectually inferior position occupy the same plane as ours? Had they had the stronger argument, would they have desisted from running intellectual rings around you? Should they have?
ReplyDeleteMy behavior was oafish because, as Crow points out, one's intelligence is not who we are.
ReplyDeleteI was going to ask why you bothered to engage in debate with these people, you missed an opportunity for a Taoist moment of intellectual detachment. But it was "way back when." I am assuming that you wouldn't bother now, under the influence of Taoist wisdom?
ReplyDeleteWell, it's not the entirety of who you are. But I'm still puzzled as to the point of intellectual debate--when you come across a viewpoint opposed to yours that is forwarded by lesser intellects, are you simply supposed to cede the intellectual ground to them for this reason? This seems incomprehensible to me.
ReplyDeleteIf you were saying, "Look at me, I'm smarter than you", that's one thing. If you were saying, "There are problems x, y, and z in your argument, which is therefore fallacious", that's entirely another.
A good point. I have long had difficulty with this.
ReplyDeleteThe spirit of non-competition serves well here: why bother to contest anything? To what end?
Then again, I am a notorious contestant, up to and including the use of violence.
I seek answers to my own need to impose my views. My own justice.
None are perfected, though some are closer to it than others.
None are anything else but what they are.