XPost: alt.psychology.jung, alt.philosophy.debate, uk.philosophy.humanism   
   From: mlwi@swipnet.se   
      
   It is high time to disclose the psychodynamics behind the notorious   
   aggressions against intellectually gifted individuals, and why it's so   
   difficult to maintain fruitful intellectual discussions on the   
   Internet. The intellect has a Promethean quality, it is viewed as a   
   subversive activity to undermine the instituted order of the gods.   
   Prometheus literally means "forethought". The intellect reinterprets,   
   analyses, breaks apart, and sometimes improves on the old order.   
   People project evil intent on the capable intellectual. It's like they   
   view him as the serpent in paradise who breaches the ratified order of   
   God, encouraging people to eat the fruit of knowledge, in order to   
   open their eyes. The serpent and Prometheus are the same person.   
   People are  afraid of the gifted intellectual, like the devil he seems   
   unfettered by the laws of Maat, the predefined order of the Egyptian   
   gods.   
      
   The true intellectual thinks anew, and he thinks independently, thus   
   breaking free of collective identity. It is this quality of   
   independence and originality that makes people project subversion,   
   self-sufficiency, and egomania, a wish to overthrow the collective   
   order of things. It is as if he questions the subject's collective   
   identity, whether Freudian, Jungian, multiculturalist, etc. Allegedly,   
   it is to make himself the focus of attention.   
      
   But this is sheer projection. What's at work is the archetype of the   
   rebellious Lucifer ("light-bearer"), who is being projected on the   
   intellectual. It is this very projection which accounts for the   
   sufferings of the intellectuals under totalitarian regimes. In   
   Kampuchea the regime simply shot persons with glasses, because they   
   could be suspected of having improved their intellect by reading   
   books, thus having acquired an independence of will.   
      
   But it is a projection, truth is that the advanced intellectual views   
   thoughts as mere thoughts. He uses thoughts as everyday tools. To him,   
   intellectual products do not acquire the dimensions of archetypal   
   constructs laden with feeling, capable of replacing established order.   
   To him, his own thoughts lack this mythological dimension. They are   
   mere thoughts; if they prove useful, please make use of them,   
   otherwise dispose of them. He is not identified with his own thoughts,   
   and that's why he has no emotional problem with people criticizing his   
   thoughts, provided that they are not arguments ad hominem. It's mere   
   thoughts, like origami, paper folding.   
      
   When the intellectual criticizes certain aspects of Freud and Jung,   
   for instance, he doesn't mean to overthrow them, rebel against the   
   established order, and place himself at the summit. Rather, it is an   
   attempt of the true intellectual to keep the boat afloat, and he loves   
   his job. He dives down and discovers a leak, and he says to the   
   captain that the hole must be mended. This is, however, enough to have   
   him shot. He has put himself above the captain by telling him what to   
   do. So he is a rebel who must be executed, to preserve order on the   
   ship. In history, the promethean,  forethinking, individual has   
   suffered  enormous injustice. Seamen have been hanged for   
   insubordination when trying to prevent a ship from sailing into a   
   reef.   
      
   The Challenger space shuttle catastrophe is a good example. The   
   engineer Roger Boisjoly had several times warned about the problems   
   with the O-rings. He  advised his managers that if the problem was not   
   fixed, there was a distinct chance that a shuttle mission would end in   
   disaster. He was ignored and no action was taken. Boisjoly found   
   himself shunned by colleagues and managers and he resigned from the   
   company (cf. Wikipedia).   
      
   Forethinkers are believed to be disturbed geniuses of the Dr House   
   type, having a severe emotional "wound", and that's why they are being   
   shunned and oppressed. Truth is, they are generally harmonious, not   
   rebellious but often rather conservative. They don't throw tantrums,   
   but are emotionally stable. They suffer this projection while they are   
   thought to be one with their intellect. Thus they acquire the   
   Luciferian dimension of a being a rebel against divine order. People   
   become afraid of them, thinking they have an inner urge to be   
   destructive. However, to the intellectual himself, his own intellect   
   is merely a function he makes use of now and then, it is not "him". He   
   uses the intellect only when it befits the problem at hand. In all   
   other respects he is a perfectly orderly individual who does not   
   compromise the stability in his surrounding. When he goes shopping in   
   the super-market, he doesn't start questioning the products, or the   
   arrangements, resorting to his superior intellect. No, he has for the   
   time being closed down his intellect and goes with the flow. He is   
   slightly rebellious only when he sits down with a paper and a pen, or   
   a keyboard and a screen.   
      
   The problem with Internet discussions is that people are only seeing   
   the thinker's intellectual products, that give incontestable proof of   
   his independent nature. Only his intellectual function is on display,   
   and they don't see his whole personality. In my experience, it is   
   quite common that women view the intellectually powerful man as the   
   devil himself. This projective phenomenon damages intellectual life   
   immensely, and explains why it's so hard to get a sophisticated   
   intellectual debate going on the Internet. People actually seem to   
   think they are dealing with the devil, and they expressly say that   
   they don't like him, or even hate him, and that they are going to have   
   him "removed". But this phenomenon also impacts how contributors to   
   journals are handled, and it damages intellectual life on   
   universities, where the nincompoop is taken good care of, since he is   
   intellectually harmless.   
      
   Mats Winther   
   http://home7.swipnet.se/~w-73784/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)