“I was thinking about critical thinking some more,” I told the soldier. “Remember that phrase, emotional intelligence?”
“Emotional intelligence?” he asked. The soldier spent most his life in the jungle and missed a lot of this stuff.
“Yeah, emotional intelligent or EQ. Someone wrote a book, it was all over Oprah and stuff. It was about how you could be stupid but emotionally smart. You’re not really stupid because you are emotionally very smart.”
He laughed. “I think I’d rather study,” he said. “I think I’d rather know something.”
“Yeah, I know. But this is another one of the ways and reasons things shifted in the culture. It is okay to do nothing with your mind because *YOU* are one of the emotionally intelligent. It makes no sense. If you can’t think critically, your emotions are going to run away with you, seems to me. It’s as if knowing why you feel something is of no consequence. You can just sit there in your high EQ and that’s enough.”
i have this book somewhere. i don’t even remember what it said, only that i was disappointed with it. now i’ll have to go look at it again to remember, damnit.
Well, from what I read ages ago I gather that emotional intelligence is more like understanding psychology and how to deal with people. Like being able to smell out who’s going to be a bad person and who isn’t. Not so much “emotions run away with you.” Maybe so and so didn’t go to college, but they are an excellent judge of character as to who to associate with.
jenfullmoon, that sounds like the ability to discern to me and I know all kinds of stupid people with degrees, don’t you?
haha my neighbor and I were just talking at the 4th of July parade about how “smart” and “intelligent” aren’t mutually exclusive.
That cartoon is hilarious.
Happy Independence Day.
Yes, well I am an emotional dumb ass, I think. I continually piss people off, I am jealous as hell, I fly off the handle, threaten to shoot intruders that come into my house and various other problems that are far to numerous to list. However..
However, I don’t bore people. 😉
pop psychology has a lot to answer for. So much of it is extracted, simplified and edited to sell well.
I thought that emotional intelligence…(did not read that book) meant something similar to “street smarts”. Where a person just “knew” how to handle a given situation, break it down and get to the bottom line pretty quickly.
I may be way off on this…
i think the focus i noticed in people discussing it was an attempt to recognize that the ability to understand and support other people was useful to society and business, not just book smarts. which i think is a reasonable shift in attitude. but i never read the book…
well, i have no idea re: your street smarts, Becca, but moron is NOT a word I would have ever assoicated with ya. 🙂
Elsa, I don’t admit it, but I love Aries-like people who are crude, don’t give a shit about what other people think, offensive, hates emotional wishy-washiness, controversial, and spits in people’s face.
Oh, and I also hate pretentious people who act too robotic!
This is my Fire triplicity in the work.
I thought it was the same as that jenlady said- not being ‘inellectual’ but understanding what’s coming out from behind the wordy cover.