That social disaster and total dufus, Gladys Lot, just emailed me to tell me that she's glad I finally figured out why I don't really understand her . . .
You first emailed me back in 2016, which was made easy by the fact that my email address is public. I think it was about getting discount golf balls for some hanger-on who needed goading.
The kind of person who says, "I don't fit in because I know/see/understand things that ordinary people don't." What may be psychological issues or just social awkwardness gets explained away, or worse: exalted, as something superior. Take this on a collective basis, and you have things like spiritual elitism: "We have the truth. They hate us because we have it, and they don't."
The "isolating curse" remark suggests, to me, self-induced (or self-perceived) martyrdom.
caffiend Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The kind of person who says, "I don't fit in > because I know/see/understand things that ordinary > people don't."
Yeah. Others can say you're not ordinary but you can't (shouldn't?) say it about your own self if your intention is to exalt yourself.
Too, and one of the reasons why I love the English language, being "not ordinary" vs "ordinary" can be either a compliment or an indictment.
You have to consider the context. And the judge. :)
I had a rough time fitting in in the church as a teenager, etc. I don't consider myself intelligent, but I fit in well with the scientists and chemists I worked with. I'm just odd enough to fit in with them. And they had their oddities, but they treated me SO WELL. I had never been treated that way before OR SINCE.
This is truth. And I believe is the reason that highly intelligent folks are found living in isolation. They are those who are shunned at work by jealous co=workers. And often just go on to hide their intelligence doing manual labor. It's too bad. I think the thought that we "align ourselves with the smartest people" is a good idea in business. And would be a good idea for all of us.