Ben Carson. High Int, low Wis.

[xiphias]

Dungeons and Dragons distinguishes between "Intelligence" and "Wisdom." It's a very useful distinction, because "high Int low Wis" is a good thing to notice.

Ben Carson is very, very smart. And also very, very foolish.

See, "dumb" is not the same thing as "foolish." And "intelligence" is not the same thing as "wisdom."

Look -- I'm not as smart as most of you. I know that. It's not because I'm dumb -- I'm not. But I'm rarely the smartest person in the room, because I try to hang out in smart rooms. However... there are plenty of people who are smarter than me who nonetheless come to me for advice. Because I've got a decent amount of wisdom.

And I think that's one of the things that causes confusion in our Presidential campaigns. Yes, a President needs a reasonable degree of intelligence. I'd say that I'd like my President to have above-average intelligence, in general. A decent ability to understand and assimilate facts, to understand how science works, to figure things out. Those are important.

But I think wisdom is even MORE important, and THAT is in short supply in this primary season.

Dr Carson is a perfect example of the difference between intelligence and wisdom.

Comments

[jim-p.livejournal.com]

That's one of the reasons I quit Mensa...

[daphnep.livejournal.com]

It's like your last line was made to be layered over a photo and turned into a JPEG for tumblr.

:)

[gansje.livejournal.com]

As usual, your wisdom is on display here, as well as your intelligence.

This is an excellent analysis of Ben Carson.