It's Not Cool To Call People Smart Anymore!
Recently I read about Rick Perlstein on The Baffler where he examined ‘smart’ people. There are plenty of smart things to say about him for his examination but that’s exactly what he wants you to think.
To cut a smart story short, calling people "smart" is dumb. The notion that your ideas — no matter how crazy, or offensive or wrong — can be valid so long as you have a college diploma, is ruining our politics.
We see this manifest on both sides. Decades of "smart" men argued that deregulation of financial markets was a good idea. Look where that got us. The APC ran a presidential campaign on the idea that voters would make the "smart" choice to allow a “change”. Look where that got us. PDP wanted to remove petroleum subsidy, APC said no; now APC said they have removed it. Look where that got us.
Many Lawmakers claimed to graduate from London Business schools and our Governors have many PhDs. Look where that got us. Even the man that just wants to make sense is not making any smart sense because he’s among dumb people that are called “Smart”.
Our Judiciary is full of erudite. Look where that got us. They are now money “smart” but legally puerile.
This is a call to Nigerians, stop looking for these “Smart” people who are only knowledgeable in thiefering. Instead, we must look at the world not between the smart and the dumb, but rather between the kind and the cruel. We've tried to play it smart for so long, maybe we should just go without gut and place more emphasis on character.
2019 is again around the corner. Don’t do the mumu smart choice, let’s do away with all these men without characters in our polity.
Picture credit: Tyron Lannister/Google