So I wouldn't be so sure I knew "How Actual Smart People Talk About Themselves." That's the title of a piece at The Atlantic by James Fallows, who's implicitly talking about himself, implicitly assuring us that he is a smart man who knows the smart people. That is, he is one of the elite who got snookered in the last election.
But the people Fallows talks about in his article are scientists and computer people. Wilde was a brilliant humorous writer, famous, especially, for short, hilarious sentences. Trump is much more like Wilde than like Bill Gates and that guy who won the Nobel Prize in medicine when he was in his 40s.
Here's Fallows:
Virtually none of them (need to) say it. There are a few prominent exceptions, of talented people who annoyingly go out of their way to announce that fact. Muhammed Ali is the charming extreme exception illustrating the rule: he said he was The Greatest, and was. Most greats don’t need to say so....Once you admit there's an exception, you've got to say Trump is not like the exception. But Trump is like Muhammad Ali. He's making his reputation in large part by speaking entertainingly to the public. And, like Oscar Wilde's declaration of genius, Ali's proclamation of greatness felt like exuberant, extroverted fun to those who loved him. What Trump is doing feels like that too. If you hate Trump, you'll balk at that, but you need to know that there were many people who reacted negatively to Ali's "I am the greatest." I remember it very well, because I loved "I am the greatest" at the time, and I remember why I loved it. It was liberating. You could throw off your inhibition and proclaim your greatness.
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Dizzy Dean said, "It ain't bragging if you can do it."
Once Frank Lloyd Wright had been summoned to testify in court. When asked his occupation, he gave it as The World's Greatest Living Architect. Afterwards, he remarked that he had to say that because he was Under Oath.
James Fallows is an old Carter hand. A failed liberal who certainly backed Hillary.
What does it say about Hillary that she lost to a man who is supposedly demented or mentally ill? And an amateur to boot.
We can think of exceptions—the people who are eminent in one field and try unwisely to stretch that to another. (Celebrated scientists or artists who become ordinary pundits...
I can think of at least one economist.
Ali and Wilde, like Trump, were showmen. Their statements were self-promotion. True, but truth was not the point. Fundamentally different from James Fallows saying, "I'm a smart guy."
James Fallows isn't very smart if he can't see the difference.
It makes people so angry that Trump can act like he does and not fail. Nemesis doesn't come for him.
I don't like Trump because he's an asshole, but I don't have any illusions about the world being fair.
Like the song says, “Don’t tell them you’re bigger than Jesus, don’t give it away.”
Smart people are smart enough to know there's always somebody smarter than they are.
The asshole gets results and I don't have to deal with him on a day-to-day basis. Peace, prosperity and lower taxes seem like a good reason to re-elect the President. I care more about results than whatever the news media wants me to be upset about.
Also, Wilde was an idiot who got himself thrown in jail.
Heck man, Obama said he was the 'smartest person in the room' and he could 'do everyone's job better than they could'!!!!
So what Trump said was, you know, not all that surprising especially since he really is a genius.
Rush Limbaugh has been very successful with this style.
"Half my brain tied behind my back, just to make it fair"
I'm no genius so I could be wrong, but you may have meant to tag this Ali not Alito.
Fallows wee also the fellow who missed the Japanese property bubble in the 80s, like Friedman on shatila, he was promoted upwards for his category error (he blamed gaegea rather than hobeika, for the book he didn't make the same claim) much like halevys blood libel against Sharon at time magazine.
Muhammed Ali? He was good at hitting people and very good at not getting hit back, and may even have been charming in a certain way, but he was borderline retarded.
Michael K pontificated...
Dizzy Dean said, "It ain't bragging if you can do it."
That's obviously incorrect.
"Trump is much more like Wilde"
He is not an artistic talent. Artistic genius is drastically different from Trump. A Wilde's artistic talent is no closer to Trump then a Mozart or a Einstein. Perhaps you were writing of Wilde's self-branding talents, not his writing ability.
Trump's an American confidence man, sure. A PT Barnum running the greatest show on earth. Great at self-branding and self-promotion. Great at publicity. A world class publicity man, if you will. Great-at-branding and publicity doesn't make one a genius in art or science. It is possible to be both, but Trump has shown no genius for art or science.
If you want to see Trump's talent for branding and publicity as "genius," then sure. People can have different opinions about what qualifies as "genius." The Kardashians are great at self-branding. You could, if you desire, massage and enlarge the definition of genius to include them. It's not my POV or definition of "genius", although I can respect the Kardashian talent for publicity, self-branding, and entertainment.
Americans, in 2018 and 2020 will decide if they believe Trump is a good or great President. Whether he is or is not a "genius" is not what American historically judge in a President.
Americans will vote on Trump's leadership qualities. That's the skill and talent on which they will render judgement.
Eisenhower read Zane Grey novels for relaxation. I don't know what Adlai Stevenson read, but it was probably heavier stuff than Zane Gray. How stupid do you have to be to think that Adlai Stevenson was a smarter man than Eisenhower because of this?
> The Kardashians are great at self-branding.
I'd pick Madonna as an example. Love, hate her, she has made millions off her shtick.
"Nemesis doesn't come for him. "
They came for Bannon.
The ancient Greek masters had a tragic sense of life, but they saw tragedy as the opposite of pathos. The furies do not come for the characters in a comedy.
On the other hand, he has never before been in such a position as Head-of-State. He does display hubris. The furies hunt those men. Who knows? Is it a Greek Comedy? A Greek Tragedy? Neither? We shall see how it plays out.
He's in The ATLANTIC, so that's all I need to know about him. I need not suffer the insufferable.
Have we reached peak Dunning Kruger reference yet?
Americans, in 2018 and 2020 will decide if they believe Trump is a good or great President. Whether he is or is not a "genius" is not what American historically judge in a President.
Americans will vote on Trump's leadership qualities. That's the skill and talent on which they will render judgement.
Oh, I agree. The Congress has a role to play, of course, but I think they are starting to get over their TDS and most will realize what a great opportunity this is.
Democrats, meanwhile, are building a wall between them and millions of voters.
"Eisenhower read Zane Grey novels for relaxation."
People who only read "quality" fiction on "good" lists are tiresome.
People can have odd understandings of people who are legit geniuses. Genius is not about what one reads for relaxation. One can make great advances in art or literature and enjoy genre fiction or light adventure movies.
My next door neighbour and best friend as a kid started reading at age 2. No one taught him to do it. His intelligences did not prelude him from reading or watching low entertainment.
So I wouldn't be so sure I knew "How Actual Smart People Talk About Themselves." I would un-capitalize the first word of the title:
So I wouldn't be so sure I knew "how Actual Smart People Talk About Themselves", to make it easier to read for lesser individuals like myself.
"I'm no genius so I could be wrong, but you may have meant to tag this Ali not Alito."
I was afraid I was going to do that, and then I actually did.
Thanks. Fixed.
No one on the Supreme Court can or should be a genius.
wwww to John Lynch: "Nemesis doesn't come for him. "
[...]
On the other hand, he has never before been in such a position as Head-of-State. He does display hubris. The furies hunt those men. Who knows? Is it a Greek Comedy? A Greek Tragedy? Neither? We shall see how it plays out.
Who's hubris is being hunted? Target of Nemesis, or the gods' chosen agent of punishment for hubris? Trump slots nicely into either role.
Murray Gell Mann and Paul Samuelson were two "geniuses" who were determined to convince the world (or at least their colleagues) that they were the smartest people on the planet (like their Jewish mothers probably told them when they were young prodigies). Ron Unz once claimed he had an IQ of 212 (one in a trillion)! I doubt if Trump thinks he has an IQ above 145 (one in ten thousand) but he clearly has a special genius for publicity (or 'persuasion' as Scott Adams calls it) and has had it for a long time. He has balls I think everyone can agree.
Trump is like Ali? And Oscar Wilde?
Jesus lady. The public actually liked Ali. And Oscar Wilde was talented.
Why not just decorate the borders of your blog page with thumbnails of King Orange Angry in every shape in variety? Like a goddamn schoolgirl's lunchbox bedecked with pictures of boyband pop singers.
You seriously need to get a grip.
No one on the Supreme Court can or should be a genius.
What?
What does that mean and how do you evaluate it in light of the constant drumbeat we had to listen to while he was alive that Scalia was a genius?
Just throwing this in Toothy... Somebody once told me a long time ago that the top third of law school become law professors, the middle third become lawyers, and the bottom third become judges. That would reinforce the notion that judges should not and cannot be geniuses. Of course it is nauseatingly flattering to law professors, but you can't have everything. And I am satisfied to think of lawyers practicing law as average.
There is a French saying that “One of the exquisite pleasures in life is to be an idiot by a moron.”
I think of this when a certain poster here starts calling everybody idiots after displaying his own cognitive limitations time after time. But you have to congratulate his mother, for firmly establishing such rock solid self-esteem, with so little material to work with!
Have we reached peak Dunning Kruger reference yet?
You would think we would. You know, like overcharging a capacitor until it just disintegrates, but the capacity for judgement by the stupid seems to be an unlimited resource.
"I think of this when a certain poster here starts calling everybody idiots after displaying his own cognitive limitations time after time."
Read his posts in the voice of a shrieking, spoiled 7th grade girl who was just told she's not allowed to go to the mall. I think that captures an accurate portrayal of that mental patient's character and demeanor.
The public actually liked Ali
Were you alive in the 60s? That is not my recollection. There was significant umbrage at his name change, for example. And there was a lot of comment on his lack of humility -- which may or may not have been warranted, granted.
Where would Ali be without Cosell, I wonder.
Does it take genius to recognize genius? If so we would need Congress of genius to pick genius for Supreme Court.
I agree with MadMan. A lot of people watched Ali's fights hoping to find someone who'd shut his running mouth. Smokin' Joe Frazier did, briefly, but fundamentally Ali could back up with his fists what he said with his mouth.
And, come to think of it, right now I couldn't even tell you who is the heavyweight boxing champion of the world.
tcrosse said...
Once Frank Lloyd Wright had been summoned to testify in court. When asked his occupation, he gave it as The World's Greatest Living Architect. Afterwards, he remarked that he had to say that because he was Under Oath.
1/7/18, 8:16 AM
You beat me to it. Figured Wisconsinite Althouse would have noticed that.
Frank Lloyd Wright was a pretty above average, innovative architect/artist - maybe a genius - and definitely carried himself and spoke about himself as one.
More than a bit of a narcissist as well.
The central problem with and for Trump is that he doesn't understand how much he threatens people. Trump is one of the most successful men...EVER.
Lets not pretend otherwise. This drives other men crazy and irritates women. Trump doesn't have the genius for managing other egos. It was a talent that General Eisenhower had to develop first dealing with Douglass MacArthur and then with Bernard Law Montgomery.
There's another issue with Trump and that might be birth order. He's old but acts kinda like a kid and in a sense he always will be a kid because while he had great respect for and awareness of the accomplishments of his parents and the superior status of his older brother he well knows he could never trump them in that family hierarchy no matter his accomplishments.
Trump has an inability to take on the older parent/older brother role which is especially needed in men of "insanely" high status. The bratty kid brother act gets old fast.
There is a genius to being good at managing and stabilizing the wounded egos of others.
MadisonMan said...
"Where would Ali be without Cosell, I wonder."
The question is, where would Ali be if Sonny Liston hadn't been told to take a dive. Sonny would have beaten him like a gong.
As to Fallows, he might want to consider how all these humble savants he hobnobs with would respond to a year or so of being incessantly and publicly called senile psychopathic idiots by a baying mob of self-important halfwits. It can get on your nerves, I'm thinking. The inclination to set them straight might become irresistible.
“Democrats, meanwhile, are building a wall between them and millions of voters.”
At this point it’s pretty obvious that Trump is deliberately encouraging them to make that wall as high as possible.
Trump achieved a great deal of success in a business where you don't need to make everyone happy. You get the right guys on board and the ones who waited too long or asked for too much are SOL. He doesn't like to make an enemy, but he understands that enemies get made. That's a hard way to win at politics, something for everyone is the easier road. Let's all pick Peter's pocket! But the Democrats have been playing the outsides against the middle for so long that the counterplay has become feasible. Right now, Trump is banking on the stored antipathy that normal Americans have for the self-regarding likes of James Fallows, who will kindly stop shoving our money into their pockets just long enough to tell us how grateful we should be to have them as our betters. It might be possible for an arrogant and rather crude bastard like Trump to overdraw that account, if Fallows and his ilk stopped pouring more funds into it. Fat chance of that!
In the realm of genius or not, what people believe about themselves is pretty much irrelevant. All that matters is what they do. That is doubly true in politics. Some people who are "nice" believe very stupid things and support very dangerous policies. Likewise, someone who is a boor (Trump) has done the impossible like achieve a booming economy and the lowest black unemployment rate in 50 yrs. I would rather have dinner with either George Bush but that doesn't mean they got things done that i like. Just saw "Darkest Hour" and while it is certainly true that Churchill was an unpleasant drunk, he saved civilization. The president is not your friend and he is not your inlaw, and how nice he is or whether you want to golf with him are totally beside the point. You should not trust anything any politician says, only what they accomplish. It is far too easy to be charming and promise stuff and deliver nada.
Who's hubris is being hunted? Target of Nemesis, or the gods' chosen agent of punishment for hubris? Trump slots nicely into either role.
Indeed. The hubris of the ruling class and their smug media lapdogs is like a bubble and Trump is the pin.
Didn't Oscar Wilde also say "there's only one thing worse than being talked about..."
Oscar Wilde also shares Trump's habit of self-promotion, as seen in Wilde's US lecture tour. Wilde was paid by William Gilbert to make the tour to promote, indirectly, the operetta "Patience". That operetta mocked the Aesthetic movement, but the US had no such movement so the humor, and ticket sales, fell flat. So Wilde informed his American cousins about aestheticism, and in the process created his own public persona, and helped ticket sales for Gilbert and Sullivan productions. Thus the modern self-promoting celebrity has his roots in advertising for comic operas.
Genius is not something you are but rather something you have.
James Fallows predicted in the 1980s that Japan would take over the world economy. He has been wrong in everything he has written since. Best to ignore him, because you won't miss much.
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