Opinion/Editorial
THE DOWNSIDE OF GENIUS
Some years back a very intelligent man walked into the headquarters of United Airlines to speak with a man named Wolf who was the company’s president. After a lengthy discussion about a variety of subjects, Mr. Wolf informed the man that United Airlines simply had to have his services in some capacity or other no matter what the price, but he would have to be interviewed by the Director of Human Resources first. The man went to H.R. to meet Mr. Peterson, a near seven-foot giant man of advancing years.
Mr. Peterson asked the man to talk about himself and his meeting with Mr. Wolf. The man complied. The man paused in his recitation after about fifteen minutes because Mr. Peterson was unaccountably smiling at something that didn’t seem to have any humor.
“What is it?” the man asked.
Mr. Peterson replied, “You’ll never work for United.”
The man was shocked by the brutal statement so gently delivered.
“Why not?” he asked.
Peterson smiled again. “Because you’re a genius and we don’t hire genius at United.”
The man was near speechless.
“What do you hire,” he finally got out.
“Mediocrity,” Peterson stated flatly. “If we hire the rare genius like you then we become dependent upon genius. Genius is mercurial, difficult to manage, and just when you’ve gotten used to it it’s gone.”
People think it must be grand to be ‘smarter than the average bear,’ but it is not. To have genius quality is to remain cloaked as much of the time as possible, the words “you’re the smartest man I’ve ever known,” among the most feared. People want to have genius, use genius, and discuss genius but they have no clue about living as a genius because most of the population does not like anyone who lives at that level of intellect. They fear them. They fear that they will have all their secrets known if they have genius around. They feel they will be beaten in games or in life itself. They feel that it is unfair for a genius to be a genius when they are not. They also realize that the thought, there almost all of their lives, that they might be some form of genius in some way, is squashed out of existence by encountering a real genius.
To be a genius is to be fact-checked all the time, even while speaking directly to a person in front of them. To be a genius is to accept that the normal rules of social behavior do not automatically apply. If the genius is fact-checked, which can be done so easily using a Smartphone today, he or she can stand ready to be corrected in public, no matter who is around. The person doing the fact-checking will also make the announcement with a certain level of glee. To be a genius today is to carry a significant burden of uncomfortable knowledge. And it is also lonely because that knowledge cannot be shared without an uncomfortable credential or credibility examinations taking place. Some of the knowledge a genius carries can never be transmitted, simply because it is not believable or runs so counter to common mythology that a raging argument or deep anger directed at the genius becomes the result.
To be a genius is to live inside an inner world of knowing silence while fitting into a world of whirling activity and noise. Even the act of stating or admitting genius is negatively impacting, as regular people demand some form of instant proof or, for the most part, simply write the ‘genius’ out of their social existence. There are no proofs that ever fully satisfy, which a genius quickly figures out. There is only another proof to endure until finally, genius no longer proves anything and finally no longer claims, discusses, exhibits the talent, or even admits to it.
The human condition is one of thinly disguised competition so fierce that almost every thought, word or act committed is weighed against that of everyone else at all times. The competition is so pervading and intense that it requires openly or secretly reducing competitors at every opportunity. Anyone seen as having an advantage, as unfair as intellectual genius, must be either harnessed and used, preferably at a distance, or extinguished from the competition.
In order to climb upward as the premier civilization in the known universe mankind needs genius terribly, however. The advances all cultures make are made in short bursts or fits because the possession of genius is not only rare it is rarely survivable.
