The 'Intellectual' Consolation

Should we call it a "poor man's consolation"? The greatest comfort for intellectuals, or those who claim to be, and the educated, is this: the others are ignorant! So many ignorant people have been governing "enlightened people like us" for years. Isn't there something strange about this?

Could it be that we are using our "accumulated knowledge" as a distance, a barrier that serves to separate us from those who are not like us? "The others are ignorant"... What a wonderful relief! Finding peace in their ignorance... An interesting form of consolation. 

Millions of educated, well-intentioned, kind-hearted, and decent people within the opposition base, along with a group of intellectuals, cling to this consolation. They find comfort in their own ill-fated destiny through an attitude that demonizes or belittles their opponents. To them, the opponent is a "rapist," "murderer," "tyrant," "ignorant," or "thief"... Yet, despite this, they cannot defeat them. Don't you think there is something strange about this too? 

The essence of the matter largely hinges on the ability to build trust, to act by trusting one another, to make sacrifices, and to discipline people who have come together. 

I teach a course called "Cinema and Philosophy" at a university. As part of this course, we discuss the film *The Platform*. In this film, the governed or the oppressed do not eat the food offered to them according to a specific plan that considers everyone, and they end up starving to the point of cannibalism at times. Yet, by trusting one another and focusing on a common interest and goal, it is possible for all of them to survive, at least in principle. This option, which is perfectly possible in principle, can never be chosen. Because people are suspicious that others will choose this option, and therefore they act selfishly. 

People bonding by trusting one another and acting together toward a single goal is, in essence, the formula behind all of humanity's great achievements. However, applying this formula is very difficult. The greatest source of this difficulty is people's distrust of one another, and the fact that this distrustful, yet fearful or anxious mass cannot come together. There is a need for a community, an organized structure, that creates hope and trust in people, and furthermore, one that can organize hopeful people and make them work within a discipline. As long as this need is not met, people remain drowned in consolations or complaints. 

Let's admit it, friends... The magic behind political or social power is not knowledge or being knowledgeable. The real magic is coming together and trusting one another. As long as we do not achieve this, people who give advice to each other but cannot listen to one another due to this intense activity, who cannot be patient with each other, and who cannot come together toward a goal, will cling to the "intellectual's consolation." They will talk about how decent and knowledgeable they are, and how ignorant, evil, and indifferent their opponents are, sometimes finding relief and sometimes becoming angry... But in both cases, they will not take responsibility. Here we are, at this point. We are sometimes angry and sometimes relieved by our own enlightenment and the darkness of our opponent. This is the blind spot we need to realize. This blindness to which we surrender, unable to find peace in consolation...