The word totalitarianism refers to a form of government where the ruling group takes on a dictatorial role and has complete control. You might be wondering how I can suggest that believing oneself to be an intellectual, leads to a totalitarian state.

While it may seem preposterous that intellectual snobbery on the part of an individual can lead to totalitarianism for a country or it’s regime, this is exactly what happens when that one individual is anything like Stalin (of the Soviet Union), or Hitler (of Nazi Germany) or Kim (of North Korea).

Intellectualism Leads to Totalitarian Attitude

In Part 2 of this series, we had discussed how those who consider themselves intellectuals tend to have a lower level of openness and empathy. This is the path towards being so rigid in thought that one becomes completely unable to see the other’s point of view. It is easy for intellectuals to believe that they are right because, in a world obsessed with science, they probably have more answers than the common person from a conventional perspective.

A heightened sense of superiority and some intellect is all that it takes for the ego to be inflated to such an extent that one becomes completely unable to see the path that one’s own thought process is taking. It is important to note here that having an IQ of a genius does not make you prone to totalitarianism. It is the pride in being an intellectual that leads you towards a closed mind.

Being a totalitarian often comes in the way of growing and this is where the intellectual aspect starts to wither away and irrational and destructive thoughts start to appear.

After all this, Some More Musings

It started with a confession that I wanted to write this series because I wanted to kill the pride, I felt believing I am an intellectual. I then went on to prove (to myself primarily) that we know so little that we cannot even see, hear or smell the world objectively, thereby proving how limited we are in our perception of the world (I also did a short online course on the Science of Everyday Thinking from the University of Queensland to help me see different perspectives).

I went on to explain how we are cognitively limited in ways we cannot even imagine and how we are fooled by our mind all the time with deletions and distortions.

In the previous part of the series, I tried to analyze how being an intellectual can come in the way of personal growth as one becomes less ‘open’ to ideas from other people and in this third part, I have tried to see how an extreme belief in one’s own intellectual capability can lead to a dictatorial kind of stance – whether it is a simple argument between two people or the matter of how a state should be ruled.

However, the one thing that I think I have finally discovered as part of the process of writing this series is that there is nothing wrong with being an intellectual but everything wrong in being proud of the fact that you are one!

But as I write this, I warn myself! The minute you think you are an intellectual, the pride is likely to come soon enough! It is very easy to start to feel proud of a high IQ or high levels of knowledge in specific fields. So if you know you are an intellectual or rather ‘think’ you are an intellectual person, you should be on the lookout for the pride that comes along with it.

For me, letting go of this pride has been a tough journey thus far. What I am going to try is to shift my locus to something that is more palatable than an intellectual…. I think I will try and enjoy myself as a seeker and an explorer who is ‘always learning’. It is likely to also bring along with it a certain humility that is so required!

If I discover devious and negative sides to being a seeker, I shall write another series on killing the seeker – but I doubt I will ever have to do that!