It’s about values

There is some discussion nowadays about why people who are clearly very intelligent are leading the country to ruin. The question being begged is: If they are so smart, then why are they being so foolish?

It comes down to apples and oranges: intelligence and values. A very intelligent person can have any kind of values, even ones that seem so destructive to their community and their peers. Mitch McConnell is, by most analyses, one of the most adept politicians of our time. (I’ll leave the soon-to-be-former president out, just because his skills seem to be driven largely by instinct and spontaneity rather than deep thought).

Everything that Mitch does seems to be be driven by his highest goals of self-promotion, getting as much as he can for himself and for people who want what he wants: a society that rewards the pursuers of wealth, not one that helps the vulnerable, or for that matter, even cleans its streets. It may be based somehow in the beginning, the creed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But there has been an enhancement: I gotta get it before someone else does. Mitch doesn’t mind other people like him grabbing their piece of pie, provided that no pieces are given to anyone not able to reach for theirs. That would be destructive within his value system, even if it means the nation is left in turmoil and grief. “We take care of our own” has a very limited meaning. It’s up to individuals to take care of theirs, with guns if it goes so far.

Another example of a man with tremendous intelligence but that kind of values is Henry Kissinger. He believed in promoting democracy around the world; so much so that in 1973 he said he would not allow the Chilean people to irresponsibly elect a communist government.