Comments on: Harden’s Folly https://www.isegoria.net/2021/10/hardens-folly/ From the ancient Greek for equality in freedom of speech; an eclectic mix of thoughts, large and small Sat, 22 Aug 2026 01:15:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: Bomag https://www.isegoria.net/2021/10/hardens-folly/comment-page-1/#comment-3444378 Bomag Mon, 04 Oct 2021 12:46:46 +0000 https://www.isegoria.net/?p=48240#comment-3444378 “…don’t feed the cuckoos”

This.

I’m gaining more respect for the Buckley adage, “feed them, but not too well.”

]]> By: Harry Jones https://www.isegoria.net/2021/10/hardens-folly/comment-page-1/#comment-3441630 Harry Jones Fri, 01 Oct 2021 13:44:24 +0000 https://www.isegoria.net/?p=48240#comment-3441630 It may be that the worst of our species is evolving as a sort of brood parasite. I’m not exactly calling for radical selfishness, but don’t feed the cuckoos. It takes a village to raise a changeling. It takes an island to house Gilligan… until we wake up and realize that we’re all in this separately.

Dickens saw this coming:

https://www.litcharts.com/lit/bleak-house/characters/mr-skimpole

]]> By: Bomag https://www.isegoria.net/2021/10/hardens-folly/comment-page-1/#comment-3441584 Bomag Fri, 01 Oct 2021 13:16:13 +0000 https://www.isegoria.net/?p=48240#comment-3441584 “But they hijack our parenting instincts [and we end up raising permanent children]…”

Bingo.

And the race is on to find and promote more and more classes of these permanent children.

]]> By: Harry Jones https://www.isegoria.net/2021/10/hardens-folly/comment-page-1/#comment-3441533 Harry Jones Fri, 01 Oct 2021 12:49:20 +0000 https://www.isegoria.net/?p=48240#comment-3441533 Intelligence is only socially valued up to a point. Too many excess IQ points and you’re effectively an alien. Intelligence is inherently valuable by its very nature — almost by definition. If it doesn’t help you survive and prosper, it’s not intelligence.

“Some people try not to get canceled by adopting an obscure prose style.”

Defensive esotericism?

Growing up, I was brainwashed with the idea that the profoundly stupid should be coddled, because compassion. An early life experience showed me this is a very bad idea, but I was intimidated by public sentiment into not talking about it.

Many years later, I evolved a withering contempt for public sentiment. Now the only reason I don’t talk about it is there’s no point.

You cannot explain the value of intelligence to the stupid. You cannot make the irrational appreciate the importance of rational thought. It’s a lost cause. But they hijack our parenting instincts: we get seduced into thinking of these people as children, to be patiently led in the right direction. The difference is, childhood is temporary. Stupidity is permanent.

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