Marginalia·
Humanity and Intellectualism
"an impossible search for home requires a blueprint to build your own"
"where do humanity and intellectualism exist in the same room?"
- unintelligent and inhumane: ideology abiding, consumption consumed, salary slaves
- blue state, average environment, victim mentality
- unintelligent and humane: traditionalism and hard work to no avail, free and fun
- red state, average environment, limited perspective
- intelligent and inhumane: elitism, ideology consumed, highly technically skilled
- wealth, polarized homogeneous ideology, academic or professional environment
- intelligent and humane: hardworking, aspirational, unencumbered, revolutionary
- found few and far between, bringing humanity to intellectual spaces or bringing intellect to humane spaces, rarely shining in spaces lacking both
how does one approach both?
choose an operating framework, and strategize to provide the opposite:
- intelligent space — fight for your life, become unkillable: give nobody anything to invalidate, work harder than everyone else, cultivate your own unique position, and be the mirror that makes people uncomfortable and breaks them out of their shell. be yourself and reject homogeneity.
- humane space — enjoy and maximize company, deal with feelings of inadequacy and complacency, and use intellect to help others solve their problems, embark on personal projects.
the tough choice
loneliness or mediocrity, pick your poison.