What would the world be like without stupidity?

    How many times have you been watching the news and you compulsively belt out “what an idiot!”? What about the times that you watch a movie and the same thing occurs? How about when you hear someone in your personal life doing something that is not so easily described as intelligent?

So what would the world be like without stupidity? To be more precise, what would the world be like if everyone had the same level of intelligence?

Most of the time news or entertainment, such as movies, YouTube videos, cell phone, game apps, etc. will showcase stupidity to elicit an emotional response. There’s a lot of advantage to this. But if everyone knew that advantage, would that marketing tactic exist? Would marketing exist at all? Marketing is merely psychology with an agenda after all. And most marketing tactics are effective because of the susceptibility of manipulation of thought and emotion. Which is typically born from certain levels of understanding. 

I believe deception of all natures would play miniscule role in society compared to our reality. A lot of the time when people cheat in a relationship it is simply because they believe they can get away with it. The cheater believes they are smart enough, in comparison to their partner, that they can deceive them. There is, of course the accidental one nighters with an emotional burst mixed in with alcohol, but I’m talking about the majority here.

Would corruption still exist? How about greed? 

Individuals on the psychopathic spectrum typically maintain an above average level of intelligence. Psychopathia has a set of different symptoms and characteristic traits, that I will not get into but for the most part they go along with taking advantage of people and enjoying the associated power. It would appear that if everyone had the same level of intelligence, a large portion of what we would describe as evil would diminish significantly, if not vanish.

But there is another side. What about the people that lack the intelligence to create something incredible? These individuals are typically more exposed to the mindset that leads to crime or sabotage. Nobody likes to feel stupid, and when you do feel stupid, you might have an emotional response associated with anger. In a state of anger, the majority are less likely to have access to the full capacity of their mind as well, increasing the gap. 

Emotional fluctuation is not exclusive to the ignorant however. Most people that score above genius on the IQ test will find themselves with anger issues as well. There are a lot of reasons for this on both sides but a lot of it comes from not being understood. Either you cannot explain something well enough or your explanation exceeds the understanding of whom you speak. 

The likelihood of putting this into a test or ever achieving a reality, where every individual has a relative level of intelligence is near impossible. But the imbalance of intelligence, understanding, knowledge, etc. does appear to be the root of all evil. Greed is only one thing that can be satisfied by having an above average intelligence. Just as bliss is only one of the things that can be achieved through ignorance. Both of which are circumstantial and potentially momentary. An average intelligence quotient is most commonly associated with continued happiness for many reasons. But if there were no average because everyone was average, everyone would be more likely to have happiness.

Honesty would prevail. Conversations would flow. There would never be a miscommunication due to a lack of comprehension. There would never be individuals feeling as if they are constantly alone, because they are either unable to keep up in conversation or because others cannot keep up with them. Opinions would simply align because everyone would have the same level of understanding. So, I say, again, the root of all evil is arrogance of intelligence. And the sad truth of this thought experiment, most ignorance is willful.