Concerns with Intelligence

Someone wrote on their Facebook wall something about how "generational governments" didn't get that "major intelligence" is in the "new citizen" and not in the "intelligence departments". I bet it had some sort of deep and smart meaning, but the output wasn't certainly the most fortunate, after all, lets define "intelligence" and "major intelligence" and then "new citizen" and what the fuck do you cover under "generational governments"? We could assume the person meant to describe the nearly monarchy-like governments where the power goes from the current ruler to a heir of them, usually blood related. It's  perhaps not the most democratic practice - specially if the people don't get a say in this - but let's let that slide, for this post. When it comes to the concept of new citizen and intelligence, there's no room for assuming. 

A department of intelligence in the Government isn't a department that's in charge of intelligent people and looking for ways to make the population smarter. I believe that's actually called "Education Ministry". An "Intelligence Department" is more like a part of the Defense Ministry, and they work collecting data on other countries or on companies, or groups or people the Government believes could prose a threat to the country, or the system. It's like the CIA, you know "Central Intelligence Agency", you probably have heard of it from movies, where they have all those spies and stuff like that? Yes, that's an "intelligence department". The "major intelligence" definition escapes me, so I will assume that the person posting this meant a level of intelligence that surpases that needed to do sapping. As for the "new citizen"... either the person means the new generation, or it's leaning more towards Ubermenschen ideas so popular among the Nazis. Let's go with the gentler, and more politically correct interpretation. Let's say it's about the new generation.

So basically this person said that the Governments where the authority is passed down within a family group without possibility of transparent, popular, general elections, haven't understood that the "major" capacity to gather data on the countries and subjects that threaten the coutry resides in the younger generation and not in the departments of intelligence, like the CIA. Huh? Okay, the other possible interpretation is that this governments don't realize that the intelectual development of the nation is in the younger generation, not in... the CIA?

Well, this person is around my age, and works in Education. If this kind of clear minded thinking is what's being passed on to the new generation - which has been nurtured on instant gratification and Teletubbies - what's the actual, real hope the world has regarding any development of the popular intelect? Or is it that any development counts, so if the future majors or Nobel Prizes are on Kardashians instead of DNA decodings, that's ok?

The matter of the levels of intellectuality among the population has been a concern for ages, as from generation to generation the quality levels drop just as fast as technology raises. There's more bullshit to fill heads with, less regard towards hard work and actual knowledge, and more appreciation for gossip and the skills to cheat the system, find shortcuts and pulling out a job or a task without actually doing anything.

It's not a matter of what kind of Government we have, be it a monarchy, a full fledged, perfect democracy or a plutocracy, it's a matter of what - as society - are we doing. Yes, indeed a Government concerned with the life quality of its citizens can do more than one concerned by the private interests of it's representatives, but it also matters what the society demands, and what it does. It's irresponsible from adults to keep pushing the task to the younger generations, saying that "the future is in their hands". So what? Are you telling them to educate themselves? With what moral stand, when you don't take care of the present, you dodge your responsabilities, and the books and internet content available, has been written mostly by lazy people like you. So what are you expecting this youth to do? Expect them to do what you were too lazy to do yourself?

If you want to see a change in the way things are going, you gara get off your fat, lazy ass and do something. What? Well, how about starting with yourself, educating yourself, acquiring all the skills and knowledge you'd like society to acquire. Want the people to visit more the museums than the bars? Well, pick up your sorry ass and go visit a museun instead of warming a stool at a bar. Want them to read more? Then you pick a book instead of the remote control and read a book. Want them to be better educated? Then educate better yourself.

The change in society starts in you. If you want change, you have to be part of it, otherwise your bitching is as useless as you are. So, basically this whole developping of the people's intellect, this sought after "major intelligence", sparks up and starts from the individual. Starts in the present and doesn't need of a future generation to get ignited, but if a future generation is needed, we were a future generation, where's our contribution to the intellectual development of our kind?

Wherever we are - because I assume that not all of us live under a family-business-Government, though many of us certainly live in a Plutocracy - has the Government stopped us time and again from smarting up, or has it been our choices, the examples that surrounded us and the peer pressure what has lead us to be the way we are now? Was the Government and - lets say - a crappy educational system what kept us from reaching a higher level of intelligence, or was our inclination to slack on everything? So, why to place the blame on a type of Government, that has really nothing to do with our personal choices, that has no say regarding how much , how little or how hard do we study?

The opinion of this person falls through the cracks as a poor construction born from a weak logic and a sorry excuse of expression, but one truth does remain: the slumping on the levels of intellectuality is done also by the lack of personal, individual effort to nurture it and make it grow.