The Woke Intelligence

Cutting Through the Jargon: Celebrating Skills Over "Intelligence" Labels

In our modern lexicon, "intelligence" has become the golden standard—often, it seems, at the expense of virtues like ethics, generosity, and sincerity. This fixation on intelligence has permeated Western culture, especially as social media glorifies the quick-witted and the clever. However, this shift towards celebrating 'intelligent-this' or 'intelligent-that' has obscured the true value of diverse skills and personal qualities.

The Overvaluation of Intelligence

It's crucial to question why we're so eager to categorize every skill or talent under the umbrella of intelligence. Are we merely trying to make ourselves or others feel better by aligning with a socially revered trait? This trend isn't just about expanding our vocabulary; it's about inflating our egos. By insisting that every form of aptitude be recognized as a type of intelligence, we're not just recognizing skills—we're often seeking validation from our peers.

And vice versa. People are queuing to label others as intelligent, even though intellect in itself has no value, it is a neutral as water, and intellect can in no way compare with enormously societally important valuable capabilities such as ethics, morals, warm heartedness, leadership, initiative, courage - the list is endless. Yet - in our modern society we label everything intelligent when we like it, like when you give a boy a hammer and everything around him becomes nails... We are in this woke world fake-labelling people with seemingly soothing and smoothing words (and they work - they do flatter people as our society similarly fakely - values the intellectual, the one who can think things out) instead of recognizing the true value of people in honest ways based on obviously observable capabilities.

The Impact on Self-Worth

This relentless push to label all skills as forms of intelligence can diminish how people value themselves and others. If someone is exceptionally skilled in a trade, artistic endeavor, or even in interpersonal relationships, why reduce their talent to just another type of intelligence? These skills are invaluable in their own right and do not need to be rebranded to matter.

Many feel overshadowed if they don't meet the conventional standards of 'intelligence,' despite possessing remarkable capabilities that contribute significantly to society, family, workplace, friends and even strangers. This can lead to a damaging hierarchy of traits, where cognitive prowess is prized above all else, often unfairly.

A Call for Authenticity and Appreciation

We need to embrace a more authentic appreciation for people's varied genuine talents and stop the superficial labeling that only serves to flatter the speaker or the one receiving the fake accolades of being "intelligent". If someone is an excellent decision-maker, let's just say they are skilled at making decisions — not that they possess "decision-making intelligence." Let's value people for their actual qualities and contributions, not just for fitting into a neatly labeled box.

Celebrate Talent, Skill, Intelligence, Kindness, Love, Ethics, Morals, ...

It's time to challenge this over-intellectualization and recognize that being skillful, talented, or adept, loving, caring, etc is as valuable — if not more so — than fitting into the narrow confines of what society currently celebrates as intelligence. We must strive to appreciate the breadth of human capability and the depth of individual contributions without resorting to empty or misleading accolades.

Let's call a spade a spade: not everyone needs to be labeled 'intelligent' to be of immense value. People's diverse abilities enrich our society far provided that they have in them this spark of life, love of other living beings and desire to do good - which is vastly beyond what any Woke tweak of the label "Intelligence" can convey.

GenZ taught me...

Authenticity and real merit is - in my humble view - more valuable than being intelligent. I belong to these people who have wasted time with these intelligence tests, and have scored well. But the biggest ever scores in my life are linked to virtues I have learned from my marriages, from my colleagues, from partners in business, and how I wished that I had not wasted my own time with these labels and had spent my time at a much earlier point, learning about integrity, morals, ethics, societal values, kindness, love, care - and many with these.. I do not regret my life path - indeed not - but I read from the GenZ, that they are fed up with fake, woke, hike, what ever - they are fed up with the same which I am fed up with. They have, however, thank God, a sort of new language - which is much more focused on what I could call real values - it seem to be addressing things straight forward, head on, and still loving.

May this Woke, fake focus on labelling things and people to sound good and be right, shift into a focus on living.