If you tell someone that you recently read up on something "intellectual" and then you say it makes you wonder such-and-such... you're likely to get one of two paradigmatic responses: 1) If you just read more you'll have all the facts you'll ever need. And if you don't get it then, you're just dumb or ignorant. 2) Yeah, that's a really interesting idea. I wonder if there's merit to your question... Which are you?
I'd like to say more like 2 than 1. In my experience, people learn at their own rate. This translates into they realize at their own rate, they recognize at their own rate, and they discover at their own rate. To put it another way, they become enlightened at their own rate. No one thing I can do or say will instantly open another person's eyes. How I respond to their own courses of inquiry, though, can help them reach what they are grasping for. Ignorance and stupidity are relative concepts. A person is ignorant in so far as they actively refuse to grow, and they are stupid to the extent that they have simply not yet learned. Closing channels inquiry and insight will only ever hinder, not help. I try to encourage as much wonder as I can in people, especially when their seeds are beginning to sprout.
hey lol and to be quite honest idk. I dont quite understand myself to the degree that i could answer that. I shift thought patterns pretty often, and i cant really predict the trends haha.
True intellectuals do not feel the need and actually try there hardest to not educate the stupid and dumb, I think that is why I will never profess to being intellectual, even though I have gotten that horrendous label.
Why not try and educate? When someone turns to me for furthering studies, i usually take the time to explain/discuss or point the direct to the corresponding literature( if it's a subject i feel confident in, mind you.) But i wont be training wheels after due respects. Wanting people to do their own work, how arrogant of me. There are both kinds of people, and then the rest in the middle. Polar are easy to see, dive deeper man! See the subtlety.
I'm either/or.. When it comes to a concrete science I go with number one, but for anything open to debate I follow #2. Nowadays with google and all, its like rule 34 but replace 'porn' with 'information'
I Don't see a paradox here. edit: A scale, yes. But we tend to lean in our own interests. And; claiming to be non-labeling, yet only find two main responses? Interesting.