So...my dad has some show on at dinner about genius and about how to cultivate it, and a lot of people don't understand what genius is, and where it comes from, and how to cultivate it.
I personally have mixed views, but regardless, i do have a few things to say on this and what NOT to do.
It's possible it's biological in part. Some brains might be better at utilizing information than others. There might be other factors there that influence it.
A lot of it is probably cultivated. Many geniuses aren't born that way, rather, their skills are cultivated. People from better environments that are allowed to cultivate it are probably better off than those who aren't. You know, the whole privilege thing. In the olden days, most geniuses were from the upper class. They were the noble class wealthy who didn't have to work. You didnt have many geniuses from the lower classes, because they were put to work from an early age and never given an education. I will be obviously coming back to this later as you know where I'm going with that if you read my stuff and know what I'm about.But before I do that, I wanna finish this train of thought. in a more modern context, you're STILL going to have more geniuses coming from the middle class, upper middle class, and wealthy, than you are the poor. Heck, if anything, our society of ultra wealth might sometimes prop up the most mediocre of people, like, ya know, George W. Bush and Donald Trump. But if you're a black kid from inner city baltimore born of a single mother who isnt around because she's working all of the time, and you go to this bad public school, well, you might not have a chance.
And some of it, i think, may be spiritual. Like the show was talking about random savants with skills like world class pianoing. Do people just...acquire those skills naturally? not from any naturalistic explanation. But if you look at it from the perspective that souls reincarnate and are "recycled" so to speak, it's possible someone who had some skill from a previous life, could have it unlocked in this life under certain circumstances. Just a view of mine. You dont have to believe that. But keep in mind what I often say about "volunteers" and the advancement of the species from a spiritual perspective. Some of us here on earth are here to advance the species, to use certain "gifts" to make it a better place. I believe I am one of them. And as I see it, a lot of these so called "geniuses" are too.
The show was about identifying geniuses and getting them on the right track, but to go back to my own message and ideas, I have one up on THAT. As I see it, the big problem isnt the cultivation of geniuses directly, it's about the fact that our system lets so much genius go to waste. The geniuses who rise to the top, and who put their savant skills to good use, are relatively rare and often come from the upper classes. in other words, the biggest cultivator is...privilege. Economic privilege, racial privilege, blah blah blah. But I'm not here to go all "woke" on you guys, as you guys know, I dont like to play identity politics. But...let's face it, a lot of geniuses who have those skills would more naturally rise to the surface, if...there weren't so many barriers to success.
And what do we mean by success? Do we mean a job? No. If anything, I think work dulls the mind and gets in the way. Our society is so focused on productivity and economic success that we think peoples' skills are based used in raising GDP. In reality, our economic system could get in the way. People too busy working to survive dont have the ability to cultivate their skills. People whose parents are too busy to care for them, and who go to failing public schools, might not be able to cultivate their skills.
It's been said in the basic income community for years that if you really want to unlock genius, you need to give people a UBI and let them figure out life themselves. They'll get where they need to go. But if most of the geniuses that bring society forward are from the upper crust of society, imagine how many more have languished in the factories and the mines over the years. Who were never allowed to develop their skills, or get to where they needed to get. Imagine how much wasted potential there is in our society because we value forcing people to work and be in a constant state of survival where they can never focus on improving themselves.
I would argue that what we do to many of our geniuses is messed up. They're not allowed to develop in ways to unlock their skills.
As someone who considers myself among these kinds of people, I'll say this. While I do believe I'm guided by something beyond this world, for the most part, I don't think I'm special. I don't think that my story is unique. You could probably put anyone in my place and they'd end up similarly. I dont know how much the uniqueness of the soul has to do with it, but I think a lot of my skills were acquired and cultivated in this life, and that if my life went differently, ie, born of different parents, in a different city, in a different culture, with different circumstances, I would not be me. So yeah. And for me, what did it was giving me an education and then giving me the time to actually put things together. I admit, being autistic i always saw through social BS at a level most other humans seem to lack, so many they never would end up quite like me. And on the flip side, I just seem to lack certain skills no matter how hard I work at them. I'm kind of one of those book smart autistic geniuses who...imploded in life because beign gifted doesnt mean success in our society. I never had street smarts or social skills. if life were an RPG, my intelligence stat would be a 10 and my charisma is a 1. My reflexes, agility, and strength would also be like 1-3. Im good at certain things but terrible at others.
The point is though, that in order for people to figure out what they are good at, and get to where they need to get in life, you need to give them the tools to thrive, and freedom. Our society doesnt do that. While everyone gets a K-12 education, that doesnt get many people very far. You need everyone to have access to a higher education in order to be able to reach their full potential. You need economic stability so you're not basically in a constant state of wage slavery. I mean, the worst thing you can do to a genius is force them into the work place IMO. Because most work doesnt cultivate their skills, it dulls their mind. Any "gifts" they might have end up being beaten out of them over time. Our society doesnt really allow genius to thrive. Imagine how many more artists, and inventors, and innovators we would have if everyone was just allowed to pursue what they wanted to pursue. Sure, maybe some people would waste their talents too. But unlike what christianity seems to think, with its work happy mindset, its their talent to waste. No one should be forced to be productive or to use their stuff to advance society, people should CHOOSE to. The fact that our society is so coercive in the first place is one of the worst things about it for many reasons. The point is though, overall, I think coercion a la the protestant work ethic hurts more than it helps. Not everyone should be forced to be productive all the time just to survive. It's a horrible model if youre trying to cultivate genius. And we should. One genius and their breakthroughs could change the world. We could come up with an infinite power source based on solar panels or something, that gives us more than enough energy to do anything. We could develop our skills in robotics or AI or automation to allow one person to do the work of 100 people. heck, we DO do that and we STILL insist on forcing people to work like it's ye olden days where everyone needs to work from match until october constantly or we all starve come winter. The point is, the less we focus on pointless busy work, and forcing people to participate in pointless busy work the better. We're getting in our own ways at this point and shooting ourselves in the foot.
Ya know, a friend of mine mentioned this at one point, but some have argued that a lot of british rock and roll like the beatles got started because of the dole. Because they had a generous welfare system that didnt force people to work. So some people put their talents to music and became rock stars. Now we dont have that because "well we cant just allow these people to sit around, they should get out there and get JERBS!" Okay, yeah you can have that stupid conservative mindset, but in the process, youre destroying genius and subjugating people to a capitalist system that works to enslave them and make them the cog in someone else's machine.
As it is, if youre rich and a genius, they call you eccentric. Like elon musk. If youre poor you're crazy or entitled, or stupid or blah blah blah. Basically, they dont like people who are a little different, they like conformity, because our system has had a wicked history in enslaving people to others. It's sickening. Genius shouldnt just be a privilege of the rich, it should be for everyone. And for it to be for everyone, we need a society that is for everyone. And a UBI would allow us to make a society for everyone.
I know some people will be like "well that's why we need SOCIALISM", uh...shut up. Socialists wanna coerce people to work too. They want to force people into conformity too. They destroy genius too. Capitalism, if anything, gives people more freedom to survive and thrive, but only if we give people the tools to operate within it properly, and don't just expect people to participate in the social darwinistic death games we call "the job market." Keep in mind, a key aspect to cultivating genius is giving people freedom to pursue their own ends. Socialism doesnt do that, it just replaces one mode of production with another and one coercive oppressive system with another. Extreme collectivism and conformity is just as destructive to the human spirit as capitalism under wage slavery is. We don't need socialism, we need human centered capitalism.
Anyway, I just wanted to get this idea off of my chest since it's actually relevant to a lot of my own views and near and dear to my heart.
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