From the study of ‘intellectualism culture’, which is a branch of ‘social theory’, arises the concept of ‘shared narratives’, discussed on this blog many times already. Shared narratives are beliefs, areas of inquiry, and values held by–and unique to–high-IQ people that bring such individuals together regardless of political or socioeconomic backgrounds.
But then there are also ‘shared experiences’–events and activities that are unique to smart people, that also bring such individuals together regardless of politics. Going to a football game is not a shared experience, because it’s not exclusive to high-IQ people. For example, this ‘meme’ I have a test tomorrow and I’m staring blankly at my book went massively viral on Reddit a couple weeks ago and is an example of a ‘shared experience’, which is why it was so viral–thousands of smart people can relate to the experience of being unchallenged in high school, only to find college coursework work more difficult. The ‘college experience’–whether it’s majoring in a STEM subject, economics, quantitative finance, or philosophy (all of which are high-IQ majors)–is ‘glue’ that holds smart people together regardless of their politics.
One of the benefits of completing college, besides higher wages due to ‘signaling theory’, are the social and bonding aspects the ‘college experience’ among other graduates. That’s one reasons why, despite being on the ‘right’, I no longer ‘bash’ millennials who go into debt to study cognitively-rigorous subjects such as STEM, philosophy, or economics and are unable to find good-paying jobs afterwards, or simply choose not to work, because intellectualism, in and of itself, has value. A decade ago, before the anti-college movement became a ‘thing’, yeah, telling students to not major in liberal arts was considered novel advice, but now it’s become repetitive and hectoring. Nowadays, many students who go into the liberal arts already know the pay and job opportunities are not going to be as good as a computer science degree, but they do so anyway, for reasons besides money. Other shared experiences induce: high school being too easy, dealing with insufferable low-information people and politics, work being boring and tedious, and bosses being inept and clueless.
The idea of work and wages being a virtue is a leftist one based on Protestantism and populism. For communists and socialists, work is always a virtue, regardless of economic value (which is why the far-left supports wasteful stimulus and make-work programs).
For smart people, who may be underappreciated by a less intelligent collective society, playing videos games (playing video games being the shared experience) is a form of escapism, which is why this story by 1843 Magazine (a subsidiary of The Economist) Escape to another world, about how unemployed men are playing video games instead of working, went hugely viral on Reddit, Hacker News, and 4chan. For smart people, video games provide autonomy and fun, in contrast to a boring job where their talents may be ignored. Low-information society wants smart people to conform to consumerism and political correctness, and smart people are responding in silent protest by ‘dropping out’, whether it’s going their own way (MGTOW) to live a life of minimalism, playing videos games, or living with their parents to avoid having to waste money on rent and ‘adult responsibilities’.
Going back to the meme, here are some of the most highly up-voted comments:
For the first comment “thats normal.. whats your topic?” the phrase ‘that’s normal’ connotes familiarity, hence the experience or ‘shock’ of difficult college coursework is ‘shared’ between the commenter and whoever posted the meme and, as well as shared by the thousands of people who up-voted both the meme and the comment.
The second most up-voted comment is both a shared experience and a shared narrative (the experience and narrative of how high school is dumbed-down and how teachers and administrators neglect the smartest students, in favor of trying to bringing the slowest up to speed, in which I agree: Too much taxpayer money is wasted on special ed and other ineffective programs. We need better policy in America that doesn’t neglect its best and brightest. Majoritarianism fails America’s smartest).