Clever
A favorite columnist distinguishes clever from intelligent and urges efforts to be intelligent. While the word "clever" can mean quick-witted or intelligent, there's a secondary meaning as well: superficially skillful or witty. I assume the columnist means that attempts at being witty too often distract from clear thinking, that attempts to appear skillful may disguise lack of skill, that attempts to appear quick-witted are too often used to avoid engagement with issues.
We've all known "smart-alecks", people who make their way through life with wise-cracks and barbed retorts. While sometimes amusing, these people are not viewed as serious, as people whose views we seek out for guidance. The people we look to for help tend to be those who are thoughtful, considered in their views, measured in their speech, intelligent in their conclusions. We value those who give good advice, not those who give quick advice. While there are those who can think well quickly, it's thinking well that is important.
I think it may be the general emphasis on speed that misleads us. We live in a time when the speed of computers and e-mail makes us want speed in everything. We forget that improvements in technology have not led to improvements in the human brain. That technology enables us to communicate quickly does not enable us to think more quickly. Many people value speed more than quality, resulting in a search for speed at the expense of quality.
In the long run, we'll all be better off if we seek intelligence rather than superficiality. If we can learn to value wisdom, even if it's slower to come, we'll achieve better answers, better answers for others and for our own life issues. If speed leads to carelessness and wrong answers, slow down. You'll be better off and so will we all.
11-13-06
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