You Have IT Or You Don't (III)

You Have IT Or You Don't (III) - After elaborating on overall abstract and yet all too detectable characteristics such as Common Sense and Charisma for a while, I would like to discuss just another which we either have or don't have. - My Dad would frequently state that a whopping 97% of mankind were flat- out stupid, and I just couldn't help but seriously wonder if his blatant assumption included his own flesh and blood as well. Well, back then, we would usually laugh it off and jokingly remark that our world was a lost case in that case. Over time, however, I have come to find out that my father was actually not all that far off. Today, we no longer find this amusing but actually rather worrisome. As a matter of fact, the world is filled with imbeciles, and what's even more of concern, you can watch entire allegedly highly- developed nations decline rapidly. - I have always shied away from taking those insidious tests to establish your actual IQ - if such is even possible. Anyway,  eventually, I got tricked into exactly that while still at university, and to my utter surprise, they came up with a pretty high one. So, I had made it into the meagre 3 % after all. Just kidding. To be honest, I still find it hard to believe, but what the heck, right? There's one thing I know for a fact, though, and this is my Dad being a particularly smart cookie as he knows way more than anyone else that I have ever met. Thus, comparing myself to him intelligence- or rather knowledge- wise, I can only wish I were half as bright as him. - All joking aside, intelligence is inherent in everyone to some extent, as I believe. However, I feel it definitely needs harnessing and proper channeling. In that very same sense, I suppose that virtues such as patience and wisdom are also necessary gages, so to speak, to ultimately shine through one's cleverness. The latter one is understood as primarily age- related and therefore won't show until a later point in life depending on a person's level of maturity. Furthermore, intelligence thrives on promotion as well as lots of input from external sources which are generally believed to be credible. Intelligence is of incredible complexity due to both its multi- faceted and multi- leveled nature. In that regard, parents are most important in proving crucial impact as far as acknowledging, furthering and nurturing their offsprings' potential. Of second major significance are teachers who operate as professionally trained educators that know how to cement a student's life- long academic foundation. Last but not least, besides the immediate family, friends and schoolmates determine how much the belief in oneself will be shaped for life. - Okay, in my almost thirteen years here, I have been witnessing a great deal of peculiar "enticement" which, quite frankly, leaves me rather confused as to what to make of it exactly. Every other time that I turn on the TV, which seems to have become THE mass media #1 in this day and age, I flinch all over again at the degree of degenerative approach as far as dealing with reality and every- day life in general. News are either tailored in a super- fluffy and top- cushioned way right to the point of idiocy or essentially omitted altogether and replaced by utterly pointless tabloid crap. To top it all off, we are exposed to dozens of ridiculously brain- washing commercials which are far worse than that simply because certain slogans such as "Babies and puppies not included" just stick to your brains. What I personally deem most troublesome in all of that is the noticeably gradual decline in language on TV which is casually conveyed and hence successfully passed on to millions of viewers. Honestly, headlines like The Dumbing Of An Entire Nation strike me as all too real and most current. What happened to the good old bookstores and libraries? All across the country, they are shutting down in record numbers these days. So are newspaper publishing companies by the way. No wonder that folks are about to lose what is left of their intelligence while they seem to be perfectly glued to their cellphones. Books are generally going extinct while electronic apps offering audio versions are booming. Go figure! What's more, physical subscriptions to newspapers and magazines are drastically decreasing in number, too. After all, who is still interested in active reading if they can listen to the same content, right?  - On this side of the world, parents have meanwhile adapted to working in survival mode by taking on one to two jobs on average which leaves hardly any more free time to regularly spend precious quality time with their kids and, God forbid, perhaps even explore the outdoors once in a while. No, instead, TVs, computers and other similar devices have become full- fledged babysitters. This way, today's kids are basically shut up and of no burden, at least for the time being. As a result, intelligence, no matter its original extent, is virtually fought tooth and nail and can't but ultimately result in increasing numbness and partial loss. Oh, should I mention that intelligence is going out of style with regard to thinking for yourself as part of being unique. Mankind is supposed to no longer exceed a certain degree of individualism but instead assimilate to George Orwell's dystopian image of conform, non- autonomously thinking, robotic beings of blind obedience to some superior intelligence. In this sense, to all those who are intelligent enough to understand that, you are not alone. Go and enjoy your freedom of actually having IT while it still lasts.