Oh, that’s what really gets you in the end, all that intelligent, or rather cunning, misunderstanding being practised bloody everywhere, at every level. The stupidity is bad enough, but this at least straightforward most of the time. But the innumerable strategies developed for missing the point, just slightly, deliberately and sabotaging communication, whilst signalling good intentions and preferably concurrently exploiting any triggers to possibly provoke a little irritability or aggression in the other, to come across as the mature one, or the victim. Is there an academy somewhere these days? The energy people expend on not avoiding responsibility while still looking accountable most often far exceeds the efforts they’re shirking.
Ah yes! An extremely pertinent point you make here! The human capacity to ‘Intelligently misunderstand” seems to extend way beyond their invention of metaphysics, and is a key feature of middle class “professionalism” and its politics. Although as you say, it also seems to be practiced “on every level”. The little narcissistic stabs by the terminal “misunderstanders”. — these would eventually build up enough poison in us to destroy us in the end. But I think there is a game changer on the horizon, which is A.I. and especially the technology such as ChatGPT. It will render this style of misunderstanding not only meaningless, but genuinely counter-productive. The cost will accrue to the willful “misunderstander”, because A.I. is going to make the professional middle classed largely redundant. After this point, humanity will be divided into two functions. The majority will consist of those who cannot think at all, because they are too easily “triggered’ to be able to endure an education. The other level, of the minority, will be those who never stopped thinking and observing, but are too strong minded to submit to the way carved out by A.I. Meet me on that side.
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