Smart
is not just knowing what you know, it is also knowing what you don't know.
Stupid is when you either don't recognize what you don't know or you refuse to
acknowledge that there are things you don't know.
When people make mistakes and errors in judgment, this is usually the problem, not basic intelligence but a refusal or inability
to acknowledge what one does and does not know.
The world is full of officials who confuse education with learning, think they
are smarter than they are, lack creativity and instead go around trying to
regulate and control people whose talent and creativity both frightens and
intimidates them. Nothing scares a bureaucrat more than a free thinking
creative spirit who does not conform to the rules the bureaucrat imposes to
bring everyone down to their level of comprehension.
What people do not understand scares them: first they seek to control it, and
what they can not control, they then set about destroying. Fear is an much
easier emotion to use politically to control people than trust: which is why so
many people of limited capacity gravitate to government and administration --
they seek to impose power on others to make up for their own creative
inadequacies.
