Pitbull Smarts

Regarding Condi Rice, one thing people need to know is that “PhD” does not necessarily mean intelligent.  It means that someone has a certain knack for academic work, but more importantly, it means they have a certain level of tenacity.  The ability to stick things through for a long-term goal.  And while that’s certainly admirable, it would be a big mistake to assume that this is the equivalent of intelligence.  Because it’s not.

The same goes for a traditional Bachelor’s Degree, something I possess.  The courseload for an Associate’s Degree in Accounting is the same as a Bachelor’s Degree, at least in terms of the business classes one needs.  But the reason why a Bachelor’s Degree is worth so much more is because of the extra work one needed to do to earn it, in all the crappy-ass classes that I couldn’t stand taking.  Like Fine Arts and Science.  And if undergrad work is like Army training, then a PhD is like becoming a Green Beret.

But it’s not about intelligence.  Sure, you have to have some.  But too much can actually hurt you.  And a better prerequisite is the ability to suck-up and to tell your superiors what they want to hear.  And that means regurgitating what your professors say in a non-obvious fashion.  And most definitely, the ability to memorize and regurgitate is much more handy than actual intelligence.

And that’s what we see with Condi, particularly with her multi-lingual, concert pianist stuff.  Sure, maybe she’s a genius.  But more likely, she’s just good at memorizing things and repeating them, and has a pitbull mentality when it comes to achieving things.  And from what we’ve seen so far, that’s more likely the case.  Because what makes a genius a genius is the ability to leapfrog over what they’ve been told to come up with something new.  And we haven’t seen that at all from Ms. Rice.  And while there are many good positions for such a person, Secretary of State isn’t one of them.  History sure looks familiar, but it never does repeat itself.  And we don’t need a world leader who does, either.


For the record, I graduated Summa cum Laude, and for you non-Latin speakers, that’s the foreigner equivalent of “Best of the Fucking Best, Mofo”, or something like that.  What can I say.  I got A’s in the crappy-ass Fine Arts and Science classes too.  And I’ve got a lousy memory, which means I did it the hard way: I learned stuff.