Sometimes things are so incredible that people are more comfortable joking about them than discussing them in earnest.
Anyway we should pay more attention about how the really important decisions are taken.
It’s our life at stake and we only have one!
PS Click on the picture and start the New Year as we all should: with a good laugh!
Broadly speaking all humans are intellectuals since all of them are conscious so, at least sometimes, they ponder upon things before deciding one way or another.
Nowadays, since we live in the era of the ‘peer reviews’, the concept is defined a lot stricter: one is an intellectual only if at least one ‘certified gatekeeper’ affixes him with an approval stamp…
OK, let me get serious.
Some people use their brains a lot more than others. Does this simple fact turn them into intellectuals?
Not so long ago, when books were not yet written directly on laptops, publishers used to hire people to do this job. Practically to copy a ‘manuscript’, usually typed (?!?), on a computer. Now, is that kind of a person an intellectual or not? After all he is working mostly with his brain, right? And in general people who work as clerks, or in a call center, are they intellectuals just because of their daytime jobs also?
No? Because their honest and respectable work, otherwise very useful, doesn’t result in anything new or original?
I concur.
So we might say that an intellectual is a person that uses his brain in such a manner that the end result of his activity is a new idea or concept, one that either fixes a problem that has become apparent, broadens the human knowledge or contributes to the artistic treasure of the mankind.
If we take this definition to be true then the limitation described when talking about peer reviewing looks rather stupid. Asking highly original people to evaluate the work of other highly original people would seem to be both a waste of their time and a subtle form of pressuring those whose work is being evaluated to conform to the established norms and customs of the ‘discipline’.
And this would be at loggerheads with the need for originality, wouldn’t it?
On the other hand in the modern days of very specialized science and technology it would be preposterous to accept every new ‘contribution’ as valid without previously checking it in some way or another…
And here we get to the really interesting part. The professionalism of the intellectuals.
What?!?
It’s simple actually. A professional is by definition a person who not only has the command of whatever skills he needs to perform his job but also such a high degree of self esteem that he always strives to do his best. In short a professional is a person who sees/describes himself as somebody who is able to perform a certain job above a certain level.
And exactly as we have doctors who save lives and quacks, writers and pen-pushers, cooks and people who waste good food, we also have people who love to think in searching for a solution or for the next new thing and people who think mainly about how to advance their ‘intellectual’ careers…
I’m not trying to convince any of you that bona-fide ‘intellectuals’ should volunteer their life and energy, live on stale bread and dress miserably. I’m only suggesting that when a passionate one meets a ‘career’ man things will probably not work smoothly between them and if the career guy gets the upper hand it is the rest of us who are the real losers. The same thing happens if the society at large is not wise enough to make sure that the ‘professional’ ones have ‘enough to eat’ but this is a rather different problem.
Pe vremuri erau foarte multe bancuri cu Bula.
Unul dintre ele suna cam asa:
‘Diriginta lui Bula afla ca saptamana viitoare va avea inspectie de la regionala de partid asa ca ii pregateste pe copii.- ….. Si probabil ca la un moment dat o sa va intrebe si ce meserii au tatii vostri. Hai sa vedem ce veti raspunde voi. Spune tu Ionescule.
– Tata e strungar la 23 August.
– Acum Popescu.
– Tatal meu este frezor la Timpuri Noi.
– Hai Bula, spune si tu ca vad ca esti tare nerabdator!
– Tata este clopotar la Patriarhie.
– Bula, nu cred ca ‘tovarasii’ se vor bucura sa auda asta…
– Atunci am sa spun ca e disk-jockey la Mystic-Club!’
Avand in vedere ca eu am asa o teorie cum ca starea psihica a unei comunitati poate fi ‘masurata’, cel putin calitativ, prin studierea bancurilor ‘colportate’ in interiorul ei am fost foarte atent cand am aflat de o varianta moderna a acestui banc:
‘….Popescu
– Tata e pompier si salveaza vieti.
– Ionescu
– Tata e medic si salveaza vieti.
– Bula
– Tata este dansator intr-un club gay, danseaza la bara, clientii ii baga bani la chiloti, si daca platesc bine tata si-o pune cu ei in boschetii de la intrare.
Miscata de situatia lui Bula diriginta il opreste dupa ore:
– Imi extrem de rau, daca as fi stiut nu te intrebam in fata intregii clase.
– Dumneavoastra sa ma iertati-ma doamna diriginta, zice Bula cu ochii in lacrimi, v-am mintit, tata se ocupa cu politica da’ mi-a fost rusine sa spun.’
This is the most effective way to introduce something new to people.
Preaching isn’t enough, there are a lot of small hurdles that need to be removed before change will actually be implemented.
Enlisting the help of those involved insures that the new thing is OK with them – otherwise you wouldn’t be able to convince them – and that they understand what it’s going on!
Have you considered ‘being friends with your neighbors to such a degree that you may count on their help’ as being part of an adequate preparation for what ever we may have to confront in the future?
This is the second time I came across with this video.
While some of the arguments presented ‘inside’ are valid I beg to disagree with its conclusion.
Here are some valid arguments for rejecting that conclusion but I’m afraid they don’t get the gist of it.
America is number one, and has been for quite a while, because she is able not only to weather such soul searching controversy as depicted in this video without falling apart as a nation but also to draw a lot of energy from it.
For self centered foreigners and also for disgruntled Americans such bickering might seem a sign of divisiveness and frailty, but in reality this is how America keeps herself on her toes in absence of credible menace from outside. Well, sometimes she was so successful in scaring herself up that she started such hapless wars as the ones against drugs and poverty but this is another topic.
But when push comes to shove she is able to pull herself together. Hitler, the communist leaders of the USSR and bin-Laden are only a few of those who have mistaken lack of unanimity with lack of strength. They are all history now and haven’t arrived there using the recommended venue…
Being able to adapt to whatever comes to cross your path demands being able to think with your own head and original thinkers are renown for sometimes acting boisterously but that doesn’t mean they cannot team up to cross that treacherous mountain!
M-a intrebat cineva ce cred despre articolul asta:
“Nouă personalităţi răspund pe ce se întemeiază credinţa lor: De ce cred în Dumnezeu”
Dupa ce am citit (doar) “Omul fara rost” am raspuns repezit:
Yesterday I shared this picture on FB.
One of my friends asked me:
“How do you define “greed”. In the movie “Wall Street” Michael Douglas has this great speech saying that “greed is good” meaning that passion for things in life is good. Where is the line between greed and passion? Does that line look differently depending on where you are in the deal chain?”
This was my answer:
“This one is simple.
If you are willing to do your best in order to get something then you’re passionate ABOUT that something.
If you are ready to ‘step on corpses’ to reach your goal then you are ‘greedy’ FOR that something.”
Another friend commented:
“Well I have a problem with this; the Catholic church is one of, if not the richest organization in the world, how does the pope plan on distributing the assets? The church generally asks for 10% of your income to be ‘donated’; not mandatory but one of the heftiest taxes around. Practice what you preach.”
Me again:
“It seems that Romanians have already solved this conundrum.
We have a saying that goes like this: “Do what the priest says, not what he does!” ”
Thank you guys!
nicichiarasa 