The Death of Wisdom & Humility

The great Thomas Sowell is an American author and economist. He once opined that “intellect is not wisdom”.

See, wisdom requires humility and the world is very short on humility today. Many of today’s biggest problems are founded in a lack of wisdom and humility.

Prior generations had tremendous respect for wisdom. Think: Abraham Lincoln, T.S. Elliot and Martin Luther King, Jr. But, in earlier times there were far fewer voices. And, with fewer voices there was less tolerance for bullshit.

Today it seems that everyone has a megaphone. The most outrageous voices have the biggest platforms. People like the Kardashians and Kanye West. People with little intellect or wisdom. And, despite their low intelligence, they have enormous following of devoted fans.

So what is wisdom, anyway? Wisdom is knowledge gained from the experience of living life. It is gained in the process of learning through trial and error, seeing the value in everything and everyone. And, embracing feedback from people with different experiences and viewpoints than our own.

Embracing people with different points of view is something we struggle with today. It’s why I often say that my writing is a conversation. Cause I’ve been wrong about many things in life. But, I have the humility to recognize that I can always learn more on any subject.

Somewhere along the way we decided that simply hearing an opposing viewpoint on a thorny subject is a sign of weakness. It’s not. Listening to a different perspective without throwing a toddler tantrum is a sign of intellect and wisdom.

Instead we often become entrenched in a bubble. We refuse to consider the possibility that people of differing world views can help enhance our understanding of a complex issue.

It isn’t reasonable to assume that our myopic worldview cannot be enhanced by listening to others. That our wisdom cup runneth over.

How about Nobel Laureates, Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama? These men share remarkably different faith traditions. It would be easy for them to have professional animosity and deeply-held religious differences. Yet, they are the very best of friends.

These two men have survived more than fifty years in exile and suffered soul-crushing oppression. Unlike some deeply spiritual leaders who are somber and serious, these two men are the poster boys for joy, love, humility and inner peace. Is it fair to assume that we have no wisdom to gain from listening to these men? Of course not.

Intellect without wisdom is dangerous. It creates an entire class of know-it-alls. Nobody likes a know-it-all. Nobody.

Nearly every religion I know embraces love and humility. Judaism, Christianity and Islam have major tenets focused on loving and forgiving one another. But, in the post-modern world, we’ve devolved. People stopped being curious, stopped respecting each other and stopped loving and forgiving each other. And, I think it’s making people very irritable.

As my friend John P. Weiss recently wrote here, “instead of having deep gratitude for how well things work, and for the people that make it so, we tend to take it all for granted.” We’ve all seen the videos of people losing their marbles at the drive-thru cause their fries are cold. Why? Because we all want to believe we are special. Special enough to be guaranteed that our fries will be hot and juicy at the drive-thru.

In fact, anger has become mainstream; an addiction for some folks. Jacking themselves up on the endorphin high from being self-righteously indignant.

Incredibly, 1 in 4 Americans now support the idea of their state seceding from the union. But, what happens when you start to disagree with people within your State? Does your county secede from the State? Where does it end?

See, our discourse has eroded to the point where the loudest voices (Karen & Chad) lack any shred of humility. The only truth is their own infallible truth.

Why? Because we all want to believe we are special. Special enough to be assured that our fries will be hot and juicy at the drive-thru.

Last week I posted an article on the Nextdoor app. I included the caption The “Dumming” Down of America. A reader accused me of mis-spelling “dumb”. When I pointed out the humor in intentionally mis-spelling “dumming” the reader called me a liar. Then he accused me of plagiarism. I calmly told him I went to publik skool. (mis-spelling is intentional)

It’s typical for humans to occasionally disagree with one another. Cause many of our nation’s thorniest issues are complicated and multi-faceted. Sometimes we can simply have conflicting beliefs on tough subjects like abortion and guns. Today, that conflict creates anger and vitriol instead of respect and dialogue.

Look, despite what you hear on TV, our country is 99% composed of good people. Actually, great people. The remaining 1% is comprised of complete knuckleheads that resort to name-calling when they disagree. Unfortunately no society can completely rid itself of knuckleheads.

Like these two people who threw tomato soup on Van Gogh’s masterpiece “Sunflowers” at London’s National Gallery last week. Then glued themselves to the wall to stop oil drilling.

For me, I choose to go through life with a modicum of humility and grace. To treat others, even the knuckleheads, with respect. In the sincere hope that humility begets humility.

I think we could get to a better place in this country if we set a new paradigm in motion. Let’s no longer pass judgement on one another, but resolve to simply look for opportunities to demonstrate humility and grace towards one another. And, perhaps that humility and grace will eventually evolve into wisdom.

That’s it. Very simple.

So what about you? Can you envision a new world order where these is less judgement and more humility and conversation? I can, but it’s clearly not on Nextdoor.

And, one more thing, can you do me a solid and share this story with a friend? I love meeting new people

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