Money and luxury are material things that have nothing to do with intelligence
www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, March 09, 2003 By: Kira Marquez Perez
Date: Sat, 08 Mar 2003 16:55:04 +0100 From: Kira Marquez Perez Kira.MarquezPerez@uni-duesseldorf.de To: editor@vheadline.com Subject: You can't buy intelligence
Dear Editor: I have been a very lucky girl. I was born in one of the most beautiful countries in the whole world and grew up within a wonderful family. My parents, who are both professors of Science, have worked with people from around the world, and always say (and they are absolutely right about it) that you can’t buy intelligence.
Money and luxury are material things that have actually nothing to do with intelligence, which is strictly a "human quality."
- Today, we can see how the world is being driven towards a really chaotic place by the actions of a few people with a lot of money, but with an obvious absolute lack of intelligence.
However, many of them have been clever enough (again cleverness is NOT equal to intelligence) to use their money to manipulating information.
We have recently seen how a few wealthy sectors and groups in Venezuela actually intend to make us believe that they are more intelligent than the rest (although their actions have shown exactly the opposite) just because they have more money. They have even given themselves important names, such as: "meritocratas,“ "gente del petroleo," "gente de la universidad" etc.
And, as Voltaire said: “those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.“ Actually, the only thing that is really attributable to these individuals is the fact that they can access education more easily as a result of their economical condition. But ... this fact can not be confused under any circumstances with special intelligence or brilliancy.
Furthermore, corrupts can sometimes even buy themselves a title (like Ms. Blanca Ibanez did) ... but that doesn’t improve their intelligence at all, does it?
These poor people are so mistaken, that they can’t see reality and they actually believe themselves to be indispensable. Pride has often made them blind, and has kept them from acting rationally. This has driven them to disdain the rest of the population, from which often the real genii arise ... history has already done its job to prove that, as we will see below:
(1) Jesus from Nazareth (00 ú 33). Born into a modest family. His father was a carpenter and his mother was a housewife. He received home education and showed a great interest in religious matters. His wisdom, his teachings and his love towards the others made him the leader and guide of Christianity.
(2) Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 ú 1519). Was the son of a notary from Florence. He studied at Verrocchio. He was an outstanding artist, scientist and inventor. The variety of his work made him a universal genius.
(3) Galileo Galilei (1540 ú 1603). Was the eldest son of a trader. He started his studies in medicine, but had to interrupt them for financial reasons. Later, he became well known for his work in physics and mathematics (pendulum, hydrostatic balance, gravitational movement, telescope, astronomic studies). He was punished by the Inquisition for supporting Copernico's theory.
(4) G. W. Friedrich Hegel (1770 ú 1831). Eldest son of a low-ranking military official. He initially worked as a private family teacher and later began to teach at the university of Jena. His outstanding work at the University of Berlin made him a leader in the German intellectual community. His contributions to philosophy were very valuable.
(5) Vincent van Gogh (1853 ú 1890). Spent his adolescence in a rural environment. He received religious education and dedicated an important part of his life to arts and teaching. He specialized in painting and worked in Holland and France. He became one of the greatest Dutch painters in history.
(6) Marie Curie (1867-1934). Was born in Warsaw, the daughter of a secondary-school teacher. She received a general education in local schools and some scientific training from her father. She became involved in a students' revolutionary organization and found it prudent to leave Warsaw. In 1891, she went to Paris to continue her studies at the Sorbonne where she obtained Licentiates in Physics and the Mathematical Sciences. Her early researches, together with her husband, were often performed under difficult conditions, laboratory arrangements were poor and both had to undertake much teaching to earn a livelihood. Mme. Curie was the woman who discovered radium, paving the way for nuclear physics and cancer therapy.
(7) Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born in 1928 in the small town of Aracataca, situated in a tropical region of northern Colombia. He grew up with his maternal grandparent -- his grandfather was a pensioned colonel from the civil war at the beginning of the century. He began to read Law but his studies were soon broken off for his work as a journalist. Besides his large output of fiction, he has written screenplays and has continued to work as a journalist. He is one of the greatest contemporary Latin American writers.
This is only a small sample, although the list is a lot larger. Naturally, we have also had some very important leaders coming from more wealthy families but in almost ALL cases they have come from families with very high human values and a great dedication to work.
So … merits DO NOT come from money alone.
You have to build them with work.
- Money may help you develop your skills (if you have any), but it will not create them for you.
Misinformation, corruption and arrogance have never made genii and they won’t do it now.
Best regards, Kira Marquez Perez Kira.MarquezPerez@uni-duesseldorf.de